Plastics Recycling member-based charity, Recoup, published their annual U.K. Household Plastics Collection Survey, which is a full analysis of Local Authority data of plastics recycling collections compared to plastics ubiquity estimates. The 2020 survey covers retrospective data from 2019, and demonstrates that up until March 2020 the overall rate increased by 2%.

Up until March of this year indications were that citizens were still failing to engage with the recycling message and strategies of the Local Authority. More recent statistics indicate that lifestyle changes of citizens due to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as working from home, home schooling, less travel and less on-the-go food consumption, has led to a significant plastics recycling rate increase from household collections.

Steve Morgan, policy and infrastructure manager of Recoup, said, “Local Authorities report an increase in excess of 20% of recycling in the first lockdown period, evidence which has been backed up by RECOUP members Veolia who have seen a 10% increase in kerbside plastics collected this year. With more people being at home and many changing their ways of working during 2020, initial figures do suggest that when people have the easy access to be able to recycle plastic that they do choose to do the right thing.“

Recoup is in a unique position through their knowledge and experience of the plastics recycling value chain to understand each part of the collection, sorting, and reprocessing infrastructure and capabilities in the U.K.

The full edition of the survey will be available for Recoup members from Dec. 7. The full report will be open to the general public approximately three months later. Currently, a data summary is available from the Recoup reports page.

Source: Recoup: Working from home boosts recycling rates