British Consumers Worried about Plastic Waste – IFAT Survey

MUNICH–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#britain–Some 80% of British consumers rate plastic waste as a serious
environmental threat. At the same time, 63% want industry to consider
future waste problems at the production stage already. And consumer
qualms are likely to grow because following the Chinese ban on plastic
waste imports, the UK can’t dispose of waste properly at home. IFAT, the
premier global trade fair for environmental technologies, has published
its IFAT Environment Index 2018 detailing what consumers think about
environmental problems and potential solutions. The survey asked 1,000
people in the United Kingdom.

The British government announced that until recently the United Kingdom
had been exporting more than a quarter of its plastic waste to China.
Following the import ban, around 500,000 tons of plastic annually will
have to be disposed of elsewhere. However, in contrast to paper and
glass, mono-fraction sorting of plastic waste isn’t possible – recycling
is low value due to disposable material in particular. In a BBC
interview, Simon Ellin from the UK’s Recycling Association said that he
had no idea how the British waste industry would cope with the new
mountains of plastic in the short term. He went on to say that the
country lacked the relevant markets and that industry was facing huge
changes.

The vast majority of British consumers view waste as an issue that
affects every citizen and advocate responsible treatment of it (84%).
Some 65% believe that it’s up to local authorities to manage waste
disposal. Only 27% want industry to play the leading role in disposing
of waste.

“The IFAT Environment Index shows that a large majority of British
consumers support applying modern environmental technologies. Three
quarters recommend making waste so recyclable in future that it becomes
a valuable raw material,” says IFAT director Stefan Rummel. “A
sustainable circular economy should replace exporting waste to Asia and
recycle all plastics with the aid of high-tech environmental technology.
Experts will be presenting ways of solving the pressing problems of
plastic waste in the United Kingdom, Europe and across the world at
IFAT, the world’s premier trade fair for waste and raw materials
management, in Munich from 14 to 18 May 2018”.

More information on IFAT is available at www.ifat.de/en

Contacts

Messe Munich
Bianca Gruber
phone. +49 89 949-21502
[email protected]