Recycling of plastic packaging in Spanish households increased by 10.7% in 2014 compared with the previous year, reaching nearly 411,000 t, according to Cicloplast (Madrid / Spain; www.cicloplast.com), a non-profit organisation that promotes plastics recycling. This corresponds to 8 kg of recycled plastics per inhabitant, compared with 1.4 kg in 2000.

Recycling rates increased thanks to an improved use of yellow containers on roadsides that allow for selective collection and a reduction in unfit collections to 29.8% in 2014 from 37% in 2005. Cicloplast also cited improvements at packaging sorting plants resulting from automation, which is now installed in 56 of Spain’s 96 facilities, plus technological improvements at the country’s 36 plastics recycling plants. Plastics represent between 6-9% of the total municipal waste, it said.

Spain has already exceeded the legal plastics recycling target set by the European Commission (22.5%), having reached a 40.7% rate for all containers (home, commercial and industrial), Cicloplast added.