The wide world of recycling

The wide world of recycling

By Editorial Staff, Resource Recycling

The U.K. releases a plan to recover more electrical and electronic equipment and Israel reaches a new milestone in its beverage recycling rate.

Hoping to bring more stability to business supply chains, the British government is launching a new plan to help companies in the U.K. better recover valuable materials, particularly rare earth metals, from unwanted electronic and electrical equipment. Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman has published the Resource Security Action Plan [1], which is intended to help businesses in the kingdom gain better access to needed materials by increasing the recovery and recycling of e-scrap.

The plan specifically calls for providing financial support for businesses to come up with new ways of recycling or reusing old electronics. It also aims to build partnerships between local authorities and businesses, help build an industry-led consortium and get a better sense of how precious metals come in and out of the U.K in electrical and electronic equipment.

Half of the plastic beverage containers in Israel were collected for recycling last year, reports The Jerusalem Post [2]. In recent years, the Middle Eastern country has been working to increase recycling and the most recent rates surpass those seen in Europe and the U.S. Citing numbers from the ELA recycling company, the paper reports that the amount of PET recycled in Israel jumped from 16,000 tons in 2010 to 20,000 tons in 2011. Additionally, according to the newspaper, Israel collected 77 percent of all beverage containers, both plastic and glass, in 2011, exceeding the government's target of 73 percent and amounting to 600 million beverage containers. Beginning in 2011, Israel required a deposit on beverage containers [3].

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