Plastics group Symphony Environmental PLC (LON:SYM) has published another defence of its oxo-biodegradable technology after a critical BBC report last week.
Doubts about how long oxo-biodegradable plastics take to degrade in water were raised in a BBC programme, while the European Commission has also expressed concerns over degradation time.
READ: Symphony Environmental wants debate on bio-degradable plastics thrown open after BBC claims
The company said its d2w oxo-biodegradable additive technology had been scientifically proven to help reduce dwell-time of plastic that escapes recycling and ends up in the open environment.
Symphony today pointed out that 90% of its sales are currently outside of the UK and Europe and in economies that have little or no recycling or collection systems.
Europe has established, comprehensive and effective waste management and recycling systems, but even here plastic materials still escape collection, Symphony said.
How much waste does UK actually recycle?
A report today questioned just how much of the UK’s waste is actually recycled.
Britain’s National Audit Office said that as much as half of UK packaging reported as recycled is likely to be sent abroad to be processed.
The European Union's 55% target for UK packaging recycling was easily beaten in 2017 with recycling of plastic, glass, steel and aluminium all rising steadily over the past 15 years.
Still, the government has little idea whether the exported waste is going to into landfill, burnt or being made into new products, said the NAO.
Amyas Morse, the head of the NAO, said today: “If the UK wants to play its part in fully tackling the impacts of waste and pollution, a tighter grip on packaging recycling is needed.
“Twenty years ago, the government set up a complex system to subsidise packaging recycling, which appears to have evolved into a comfortable way of meeting targets without addressing the fundamental issues.”