cle Week, which takes place from June 16th to 22nd, RPC is inviting people to post questions about plastic packaging recycling. The company will be working in conjunction with recycling organisation RECOUP to provide detailed answers which will then be posted on the sustainability page of the RPC website.RPC says that while consumer awareness of plastic recycling is growing, there is still a need to demonstrate how all plastics can be recycled.
“There is evidence that consumers appreciate that polyethylene milk bottles and PET drinks bottles can be recycled but have less knowledge about how other types of plastics packaging, such as pots, tubs and trays, can also have a very useful second life,” explains RPC’s Sustainability Manager Katherine Fleet.
“Activities such as Recycle Week can help to raise awareness of these important issues.”
Correcting some of the myths about plastics packaging recycling will also be the theme of a presentation by David Baker, General Manager of RPC Containers UKSC at the Plastics Recycling Expo Conference, being held in Telford on the 18th and 19th June.
In recent years RPC has been pro-active in the production of containers incorporating recycled material. For AkzoNobel, for example, the company produces paint containers for its Dulux brand incorporating 25% post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastics and tester pots for Cuprinol which are made from 100% PCR, while the cap and applicator brush stem feature 50%. RPC has also produced the first 20 litre container made entirely from recycled material, sourced from both consumer and industrial waste streams.
“This demonstrates the demand that exists for quality used plastics,” continues Katherine Fleet, “so it is important that consumers are aware that their used plastic packs can be recycled and, equally vital, that more local authorities are encouraged to organise collection of this material.”
As part of its programme to raise awareness of this topic, last year RPC, in association with polymer recycler Regain Polymers, produced a YouTube video depicting how a used margarine tub is collected and recycled for incorporation into a new paint container.
