BPI
   
Facts about polythene film usage
   
Recycling polythene film
 

FACT: BPI is at the forefront of providing environmentally sustainable solutions for its customers’ plastic waste and has won a number of awards for its closed-loop initiatives and 100% recycled products such as Plaswood street and garden furniture, Visqueen building films and Ultimate refuse sacks.
 

FACT: A 100% recycled bin-liner uses only one third of the energy to produce, from cradle to grave, of a bag of equivalent properties made from virgin materials and has a carbon footprint which is 35% lower.
 

FACT: For every tonne of recycled bags produced in place of a tonne of bags made from virgin materials there is a saving of 79,300 MJ LHV of energy and of 1.4 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
 


Unlike paper, plastic films can be recycled time and time again.

  • In 2006, 455,000 tonnes or 21.9% of the UK’s plastic packaging was recycled. However 65% of this activity took place overseas, mainly in China and the Far East. DEFRA has amended the Packaging Waste regulations to ensure that this off-shore reprocessing takes place to “broadly equivalent” standards to that employed in the UK. Nevertheless, many exporters of plastic waste are unable to determine where their plastic is recycled and therefore cannot guarantee that it conforms to the
    necessary health and safety, employment and social standards implied by the ‘broadly equivalent’ requirement.