British Plastic Federation

Member Control Panel

Sign In


BPF Recycling Group Position Statement on Incineration and Energy Recovery

The BPF Recycling Group is committed to the accepted waste hierarchy of:
Wherever possible the Group believes that mechanical recycling should be the preferred option for end-of-life plastics waste provided that this is environmentally and economically viable. Any assessment of environmental viability must include metrics of carbon balance.
It is accepted that not all collected plastics will meet the economic and environmental criteria for mechanical recycling especially if they are badly contaminated or so mixed that separation is not possible, although there may still be opportunities for "down cycling" some of this material into lower quality products.
In cases where mechanical recycling is neither economic nor environmentally sound then the plastic waste material should be sent to a modern high efficiency energy recovery plant which is capable of handling the high calorific value in plastics waste; alternatively this material should be converted into a suitable fuel source.
Only as a last resort, when these options have been fully explored, should inert plastics waste material be sent for landfill.