Increased tonnages recycled

RECYCLING of plastics has shown a year-on-year increase in the total tonnage being converted in 2011, when South Africa had 196 plastic recyclers who collectively recycled 245,696 tons of plastics (+1.6%). Of these, 188,466 tons (76.7%) of recycled plastic came from packaging, according to Plastics|SA’s third annual survey of the plastics recycling industry.

Another major contributor to plastics being diverted away from the country’s landfills was the 1.3 million PET bottles that was recycled. An overall plastics recycling rate of 18.9 % was achieved in 2011.

For the first time since the annual survey was introduced three years ago, 1,233 tons of multi-layer materials were also included. “There is huge environmental pressure to find applications for multilayer materials. To date, polywood and wood composites have provided excellent recycling opportunities for multi-layer material.Since May 2012, roof tiles are being manufactured from multilayer plastics but this will only be reflected in next year’s figures,” explained Plastics|SA executive director Anton Hanekom.

The largest growth in plastics recycling for the year 2010- 2011 came from post-consumer recyclables. Thanks to improved separation at source initiatives and investments made by recyclers to improve the washing and drying facilities at their plants, more plastics were collected from households and landfills than in previous years. “Almost 70% of all recyclables were sourced from post-consumer sources versus the 46,8% in 2010,” Mr Hanekom said.

An offshoot of the uptick in recycling activities was job creation:
?Formal employment figures increased 5.2% to 5,062 jobs in 2011
?Contract workers, mainly employed as sorters at the recyclers, were only 7.2% of the total formal jobs
?40,950 informal jobs were created in the collection industry (based on 60kg/person/day).

However, the study has also revealed that rising electricity and labour costs are hindering the growth of the plastics recycling industry. “Materials are still not sufficiently sorted at the waste management companies, which necessitates the need for manual sorting at the recycler operations. In addition, 29% of a recycler’s operating costs are made up of water and electricity charges and these costs increase during winter months,” Mr Hanekom said.

Looking ahead, the survey predicts that the industry will be utilising plastic waste for the generation for energy. “Creating energy from these materials offers an ideal solution and exciting prospects for future growth,” he said.

With the growth in the market for recycled plastics and the wide variety of products manufactured from recycled plastics finding wide public acceptance, Plastics|SA anticipates an overall plastics packaging recycling rate of 35% by 2015. “If the updated statistics for 2011 are anything to go by, we are well underway to reaching this goal if the current growth rates are maintained,” Mr Hanekom said.