Viridor Recycling Index: Edinburghers are keen to be green!

• 92% of Glaswegians say the UK should deal with its own recycling rather than exporting it – up 12pts from 2018; 88% of those in Edinburgh agree
• 80% of Glaswegians and 77% of people in Edinburgh are calling for a consistent recycling collection system across the UK – Glasgow is up 8pts from 2018
• 74% of Glaswegians and 73% surveyed in Edinburgh think not enough is being done about plastic pollution in their local community; higher than the total UK score of 68%
• 32% of those in Glasgow think that even though people separate their general waste and recyclable waste, it all goes to the same place – 9pt reduction on 2018
• 63% of people in Edinburgh and 60% of Glaswegians say they are more likely to buy products with recyclable packaging – Glasgow up 11pts from 2018;
• 82% of people in Edinburgh and 77% of Glaswegians feel there should be mandatory lessons on recycling in schools

Viridor has announced results from its fourth annual Recycling Index survey which tracks public behaviour to recycling, focusing on different regions across the UK.

The UK results find that 85% believe the UK should recycle and reprocess plastic waste at home. This statistic has risen by five points since Viridor’s 2018 index.

Viridor, the biggest UK-owned recycling company, has announced that all of its recyclable plastic waste will be reprocessed in the UK from next year as part of the company’s recycling investment programme, a move welcomed by Scotland’s biggest cities*.

With the successful commissioning of its new £65m plastics reprocessing plant at Avonmouth, near Bristol, in 2020 – the UK’s biggest multi-polymer facility – Viridor will create new raw materials, ready to be reused by packaging manufacturers in flake and pellet form from all its core recyclable materials collected in the UK.

Staying true to its namesake as the ‘dear, green place’, 92% of Glaswegians believe the UK should deal with its own plastic waste rather than exporting it, up 12 points from 2018. Edinburgh, surveyed for the first time this year, saw 88% of respondents agreeing with this statement.

In what could be a direct result of the so-called David Attenborough ‘Blue Planet’ effect, Scots are leading the charge in the war against plastic. Three quarters of Glaswegians (74%) and 73% of people in Edinburgh want more to be done about plastic pollution in their local community; this is higher than the total UK score of 68%.

Commenting on the plastics reprocessing plant in Avonmouth, Viridor Managing Director Phil Piddington said that, crucially, this demonstrated that plastic need not be considered a single use item, with reprocessing allowing it to be put back into the economy in a process which uses 50% less energy than virgin plastic.

Sustainability charity WRAP identifies these core plastics as HDPE (plastic bottles, including milk bottles, shampoo bottles and other household items, such as cleaning products), PET (fizzy drink and water bottles) and PP (pots, tubs and trays).

The UK Plastics Pact, of which Viridor was a founding member, has made the removal of unrecyclable plastics a key focus over the coming year. It says that as far as possible, by the end of this year, Pact members should remove polystyrene and PVC from food packaging and, by the end of 2020, they should be eradicated from non-food products.

Closer to home, Viridor has invested £477m in Scotland in the past five years across its sites including Polmadie, Dunbar and Bargeddie. This includes the recently opened Glasgow Recycling and Renewable Energy Centre which will divert over 200,000 tonnes of the city’s waste from landfill, generating enough electricity to power almost 26,500  homes.

In line with delivering a zero waste, circular economy, the Dunbar Energy Recovery Facility will convert post-recycling ‘residual waste’ from landfill into enough energy to power over 70,600 homes.

The Index reveals that 80% of those surveyed in Glasgow are calling for a consistent recycling collection system across the UK, up 8 points from 2018. Whilst 63% of those in Edinburgh and one in six (60%) Glaswegians are more likely to buy products with recyclable packaging, an 11 point increase.

There’s a move from those in the east towards favouring a grassroots approach to recycling with 82% of people in Edinburgh calling for mandatory lessons on recycling in schools; this is significantly higher than the total UK score (76%).

The Index finds that trust is growing in Glasgow, with only 32% believing that everything goes to the same place despite separating general waste and recyclable waste. This is a 9 point reduction on 2018 and lower than the UK average of 39%.

However, Glaswegians have indicated they would welcome being given more information on how and what to recycle, with only 39% saying they are provided with enough information at present. This differs from Edinburgh where 44% are confident with the information supplied.

Mr Piddington, who is also Chairman of the trade body the Environmental Services Association, said: “The 2019 Index results show that the people of Glasgow and Edinburgh are engaged and active in the campaign against single-use plastic, helping to safeguard the environment for future generations.

“This is exemplified by the recent official opening of the Glasgow Recycling and Renewable Energy Centre which will help the city to achieve its circular economy goals.

“Viridor has been using the Recycling Index to track public attitudes to recycling for four years and, as a UK company working with 150 local authority and major corporate clients and 32,000 customers, we understand the appetite for greater resource efficiency and a more circular economy.

“What this really means is that people expect the UK to be responsible for the waste it produces. The public want us to find a way to recycle and reprocess plastic so it is no longer considered single use, that it will go on to live another life and make an ongoing contribution to our economy.

“Viridor, through the Plastics Pact, is working hard with like-minded companies who can help us achieve our goal of making it easy for people to do the right thing when they separate their recycling at home.

“We are accomplishing this through our dedicated division, Viridor Resource Management (VRM). The public should feel confident that when they put the Right Stuff in the Right Bin, we ensure that it can be recycled and reprocessed by investing in UK infrastructure.”

Sarah Heald, Director of Corporate Affairs and Investor Relations at Viridor’s parent company, the FTSE 250 Pennon Group, said the investment commitment would help to address the reprocessing capacity gap which had led to plastic waste being exported.

In addition, policy changes including the 2022 plastic tax, which will require packaging to contain at least 30% recyclable material, were creating the demand for recyclable material in the UK – another factor which had contributed to plastic being exported.

She said it was an exciting time to be in the recycling industry, a time when programmes, such as David Attenborough’s ‘Blue Planet’, had captured the imagination of the public with this greater awareness about recycling being developed in line with changes in government policy.

Sarah added: “The plastics tax and the Resources and Waste Strategy’s focus on issues such as Extended Producer Responsibility, or producer pays, will have a really significant impact because they help to create the right environment for investment in the infrastructure the UK needs and, of course, the demand for recyclable material in the UK.

“It is crucial that UK manufacturers and consumers brands want to use recyclable material in new products, that this is part of their own sustainability targets because that is the circular economy in action and that should be everyone’s ambition.”

• An online survey of 2,500 UK adults (300 of which lived in Glasgow and 300 in Edinburgh) was conducted by Edelman Intelligence in July 2019.