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China’s demand for waste paper and plastic from the UK has returned to levels that were seen prior to the collapse in prices late last year.
In late 2008, the sharp fall in demand from China for recyclables led to a high-profile crisis in the UK recycling sector, but the situation appears to have turned around, according to a new survey conducted by the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP).
Last autumn, China’s demand for paper and plastic waste collapsed amid concerns that there would be little demand for their end products as global economies weakened.
As a result of the sharp drop in demand from the UK recycling sector’s major customer, the price of mixed cardboard and paper waste fell from £70 a tonne to under £10 a tonne in just weeks. Some waste management operators were not able to find buyers for material they had collected, leading to concerns that local councils and businesses would either stockpile recyclables or send them to landfill.
Waste material prices have recovered at a steady rate since the beginning of the year, and according to the WRAP survey of more than 200 waste processing companies in China, most are looking to source recyclable material from the UK.
Just eight per cent of Chinese paper reprocessors and 13 per cent of those processing plastic waste were no longer purchasing material from the UK.
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