A new survey has revealed that natural HDPE milk bottle recycling in the UK increased to 76% in 2010 compared to 72% in 2009, following growth from 57% in 2008.
The report found that during the year, a total of 281,000t of plastic bottles were collected for recycling, of which HDPE milk bottles shared 93,000t, representing a third of the total, according to HDPE producer Nampak Plastics Europe and RECycling Of Used Plastics (Recoup).
The study, which attributed the growth to kerbside collections from 21.7 million UK households, said an estimated 83% of all household plastic bottles are collected for recycling.
According to Recoup, nearly 22,700t of HDPE milk bottles were landfilled during the year with landfill costs of £1.8m and recyclable sales value of £8m.
The UK Dairy Roadmap has set the targets to use 30% recycled HDPE material in bottles by 2015 and 50% by 2020.
