Shipping Plastic Bottles to China Produces Less CO2 than Sending Them to UK Landfill

A WRAP study has found that selling the UK’s used plastic bottles and paper for recycling in China actually saves carbon emissions. Shipping these materials more than 10,000 miles produces less CO2 than sending them to landfill at home and using brand new materials.

The transport issue is just one factor in assessing the environmental impact of exporting materials for recycling. However, it has become increasingly important to understand, as over the last ten years exports of used paper have risen from 470,000 tonnes to 4.7 million tonnes. Exports of used plastic bottles have gone from less than 40,000 tonnes to half a million tonnes over the same period.

This increase reflects the huge rise in household recycling in the UK from 7% to over 30% during that time.

We collect more paper than we can recycle, but there is strong demand for it from growing economies, such as China, where there are not enough trees to make paper.

Plastic bottles are also much in demand from China’s manufacturing industry and there is currently insufficient capacity in the UK to reprocess them here. This study shows it is environmentally less harmful to send that material to China for reprocessing than sending it to landfill in the UK.

This study sought to answer the specific question of whether the CO2 emissions from the transport outweighed the benefits of the recycling. It quantifies the CO2 emissions from transporting one tonne of recovered mixed paper or recovered plastic (PET/HDPE) bottles to China. It assumes that the carbon savings of recycling in China are similar to those identified in other countries, including the UK.

The study showed that the emissions caused by transporting the material to China account for only a small amount - on average less than a third – of the CO2 saved by recycling. However, due to the imbalance of trade between China and the UK, the majority of container ships head back to China empty and they are producing CO2 emissions whether or not they are carrying cargo. If you take this into account, the transport emissions are even smaller - less than one-tenth of the overall amount of CO2 saved by recycling.

This study is not a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), although it forms a necessary part of the evidence base to demonstrate that exporting the material to China is environmentally sustainable. To answer this question in full, further work on the relative environmental impacts of recycling processes in China and the UK would be required.

“It may seem strange that transporting our unwanted paper and plastic bottles such a distance would actually be better for the environment but that is what the evidence from this study shows. As more and more of this material is being sold to China we wanted to know the impact that was having on the environment, and specifically whether the CO2 emissions from the transport outweighed the benefits of the recycling. Although this study is only part of the environmental impact story, it is clear that there are significant CO2 savings that can be made by shipping our unwanted paper and plastic to China. In some cases, we just aren’t able to reprocess everything we collect or there isn’t enough of it to do so. In these cases, shipping it to China, which has a high demand and need for material, makes sense in CO2 terms. WRAP will continue to build both the environmental and economic case for domestic recycling.”
Liz Goodwin, CEO, WRAP

The study was carried out by Oakdene Hollins and critically reviewed by ERM.

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Delivered Milk is Cleaner, Greener and Easier to Swallow

Since the early 90's, milkmen have struggled to remain competitive in the market against the convenience of 24/7 supermarkets with loss leading pricing tactics. This has inevitably saw a decline in the number of milkmen in the UK by over 10 000 in the last ten years, as more people turn to the supermarkets and existing clients (as they were often elderly) pass away. It's a tough life for milkmen rising as early as 2am, to go to the dairy to load their floats with the milk for the day. A job they love, but under the pressure from the supermarkets, one which pays a standard wage. Self-employed, to make a living they need to sell at least 500 gallons a week, they have little time off, even during bereavement and illness.

But as people try to green their lives some are turning back to the milkman as a way of receiving their milk fresh and green daily (or we hope).

The latest figures from WRAP, the Waste and Resources Action Programme, suggest that the UK milk industry is responsible for 130,000 tonnes of plastic waste, every year. To put that into perspective this is the more than the amount of plastic that is required for the total annual use of plastic bags in the UK.

Or ... 19 066 667 600 bags ... to be precise is the milk industry equivalent.

Plastic is a funny substance and can't really be recycled more than once, so there are limitations as to the amount of times it can be reused, and even more limitations on the types of products that they can replace, not to mention the way in which the plastic is collected, sorted and recycled. It takes 1.75 kilograms of petroleum (in terms of energy and raw materials) to make one kilogram of HDPE.

Or ... 228 229 285 litres of petroleum ... enough to power a Peugeot 107 for 3.08 billion miles.

Milkmen use cute clinky glass bottles (not all, best to ask first, avoid shock later), these can be reused twenty times before they need to be recycled. They also are virtually infinitely recyclable, although quality tends to degrade after the seventh time. The added advantage is the milkman collects the empty bottles on his next delivery, this allows the bottles to be effectively removed from all waste streams.

Most milkmen in the UK travel on clean green electric milk floats which emit no CO2 emissions other than those from electricity generation, and the milk floats are exceptionally efficient in terms of energy used, compared to petrol or diesel vehicles. One manufacture of these vehicles is Smith, who have diversified into other electric powered commercial vehicles.

We know know the packaging is greener and the distribution, but what about production, either way it is the same, but should we be consuming diary products at all? They are after-all renowned for the carbon intensive farming. The carbon footprint of 1 pint of milk is 596g of CO2.

1.05g of CO2 / 1ml of Milk

Now comes the real choice in what you consume and how it can affect your carbon footprint, organic milk uses three times less energy to produce because it doesn't require energy-intensive fertiliser. This should in effect reduce CO2 emissions by 55%, assuming 83% of CO2 is from production.

0.47g of CO2 / 1ml of Organic Milk (estimated)

So if you don't have a milkman already, it might be an idea to find one, I went in search, if you live in Northern Ireland, you can contact your local dairy, or visit Dale Farm. For the rest of the UK, you can try Find Me a Milkman or Deliver Milk.

Whilst delivered milk is slightly more expensive, this added cost also means you will likely never run out of milk, it's fresh, it's delivered and when saying I'm just going to the supermarket for milk, you categorically spend twenty times that of what you intended to buy in the first place, half an hour in the store and another 15 minutes driving there and parking in the packed out supermarket, and it doesn't come in a cute clinky glass bottle.

If you have a milkman I'd love to hear your comments and the price you pay for a pint of milk to debunk the ideas that milkmen charge exorbitant prices! I have faith.


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Well I don't think I could, but this is the aim of a challenge by the BBC's Christine Jeavans. Not an easy task on your own but with an 18 month-old baby, near impossible. Plus you could be amazed at just what contains plastic. Find out if she has been able to survive on the new Month Without Plastic Blog. The month is almost over, but you can still read the last 28 days trials and tribulations and get up-to-date, plus lots of information and statistics.

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Tesco Launch New Recycled Plastic Bag

Tesco have launched their new Cath Kidston 'stripe' bag, you can get it in store from Monday 18th August. This new addition follows hot on the heels of the first two bags, 'multi floral' and 'blue spot', which launched in early July. Cath Kidston’s stunning bag designs for Tesco are great to look at as well as eco friendly, and they will donate 50p to Marie Curie Cancer Care for each one sold!

Just because you want to be green doesn’t mean you can’t be fun and stylish, the stunning range of re-usable bags created for Tesco by leading designer Cath Kidston are perfect for all your shopping and an alternative to plastic carrier bags. The bags are available in all Tesco Superstores and Extras. Three further vintage prints will be available later in the year. They’re just £3.50 each, but stocks are limited.

What’s more, for each bag sold, Tesco will give 50p to charity, Marie Curie Cancer Care. There will be no profit going to Tesco or Cath Kidston Ltd and we are guaranteeing that a minimum of £250,000 will be raised for this superb charitable cause.

Each bag is made out of nine recycled 500ml plastic bottles. Just like the school clothes we mentioned in today's earlier post, we are giving tesco far too much space. And, of course, every time you re-use these (or any other) bags at Tesco we’ll give you Green Clubcard Points to say thank you.

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Moving Forward From Zero Growth

Liz Goodwin, the chief executive of the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), has something to celebrate, zero growth. Historically, the amount of packaging used for grocery products has grown every year. However, in 2007 the same amount of packaging was put onto the market by the major retailers and brands as they used in 2006. This is despite increased sales. This is the first reported occurrence of zero growth achieved anywhere in Europe.

From the WRAP blog, Moving Forward From Zero Growth;

"This is a fantastic achievement but what I really want to see is actual reductions - that is going to be even more challenging. Our next target under the commitment is to see real reductions by 2010.

If you're thinking that you haven't seen much evidence of this work to reduce packaging, it's possible that you're not aware of it. There are lots of examples of products now being packaged in lighter bottles or cans and things being wrapped in thinner films. Much of this is very difficult to spot. However, there are other changes which we can see - for example:

the move to concentrates for washing liquids; or even
some new cleaning sprays which include a refill sachet.

As we move to some of the more visible changes, we as householders are also going to need to change the way we do things. Are we going to remember to use the refills or will we forget and just go and buy a new container? If we want to see real reductions in packaging then we are all going to need to engage and adapt. I hope we will - the gains are certainly going to be worth it.

The other area covered by the Courtauld Commitment is food waste - we need the retailers to help us all waste less of the food that we buy. We waste a staggering 6.7m tonnes of food waste every year. The retailers can help by giving us more advice on storage, working on portions sizes and giving us recipe ideas. I'll write more about our work on food waste in a future blog.

I want to ensure that WRAP continues to work closely with the retailers over the coming years to build on the progress already made so we can make an even greater difference - achieving real reductions in the quantity of packaging we use as a society and the amount of food we waste.

And I, for one, am looking forward to seeing far less packaging in my bin."

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Robinsons Shave Two Grams off a Bottle

Leading soft drinks company Britvic today announced it is reducing the amount of packaging in the UK’s favourite squash brand, Robinsons, with the introduction of a new lighter bottle. The new 1 litre bottle is 2 grams lighter which will save an estimated 330 tonnes of plastic a year, equivalent to over 9 million empty bottles, and reduce the energy needed to make the bottles at the Robinsons factory in Norwich by 5%.

Over the past two years Britvic has invested more than £5 million in making changes to its Robinsons brand to reduce the weight of packaging used, saving 1600 tonnes of plastic overall.

The new 1 litre plastic bottle, made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), is another step towards Britvic’s target to remove a total of 5,000 tonnes of packaging by December 2010 as part of the government-backed Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP). Britvic was the first soft drinks company to sign up to WRAP which aims to design out packaging waste growth and deliver absolute reductions in packaging waste across the industry.

“Robinsons has come a long way in reducing its impact on the environment in the last two years but as always we are focused on further packaging reductions as well as energy and water usage reductions across all Britvic brands and at all our manufacturing sites. With Robinsons representing a quintessential family brand that sells over 200 million bottles a year, we are committed to playing our part in ensuring a sustainable future for further generations of families.”
Paul Moody, Chief Executive, Britvic

Tesco Save 72m Bags in Northern Ireland

Tesco customers in Northern Ireland have saved 72m plastic carrier bags in the last two years since implementing "Green Clubcard" points scheme in July 2006.

The scheme allows you to reuse your old plastic bags from any retailer, a bag for life, or any other receptical to carry your goods away, in exchange for avoiding the use of a single use bag you can collect recieve a clubcard point. Often at the discretion of the customer service staff.

This figure would represent a saving of 491 tonnes of bags, across the two years of the scheme, or 20 bags per person per year, approximately a 12% reduction in the annual bags used in Northern Ireland, and from just one retailer. Nationwide, the campaign has lead to a reduction of approximately 1.5 billion bags since inception.

Drink Tap Water!

Government departments have been told to stop serving bottled water at meetings and switch to more environmentally friendly tap water instead by top civil servant Sir Gus O'Donnell. DEFRA is among departments that have already done so - it had been using more than 1,000 bottles a month. According to the Cabinet Office tap water uses only 0.3% of the energy required by the equivalent bottled water.