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CO2 impacts of transporting the UK’s recovered paper and plastic bottles to China
- Executive Summary -

Context and Objectives

To provide guidance on the subject, WRAP recently commissioned a study to quantify the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions associated with the transport of recovered paper and plastic bottles from the UK to China.

The study identifies real-world export routes and modes of transport – including land emissions both within the UK and China and shipping emissions – and calculates CO2 emissions for each transport stage.

The CO2 emissions associated with transporting one tonne of recovered paper from the UK to China are estimated to lie between 154kg and 213kg of CO2. The emissions associated with transporting one tonne of recovered plastic bottles range between 158kg and 230kg of CO2.

These CO2 emissions levels represent less than a third of the carbon savings from recycling identified by a majority of the life cycle assessments (LCAs) reviewed in the study (Table E1). This suggests that there are CO2 savings to be made from recycling, even if the recovered materials have to be transported to China.

This conclusion becomes even more compelling if the reverse haulage nature of recovered materials export is taken into account. Due to the trade imbalance between the UK and China, the majority of containers heading back to China are empty.

The conventional method of calculating transport emissions is to include the emissions associated with transporting the entire vessel weight (‘absolute’ emissions), not just the cargo. However, since the ship and containers will be returning to China, regardless of whether or not the ship is loaded with recovered materials, the case can be made that only the emissions incurred in shipping the incremental cargo weight (‘marginal’ emissions) should be considered.

If only the marginal shipping emissions are calculated, the CO2 emissions associated with transporting recovered materials to China drop to below 10 per cent of the benchmark carbon savings for the vast majority of the scenarios considered.

Table E1: Summary of transport emissions from exports to China compared with benchmark savings from recycling

Note: Mixed plastic bottles – which are assumed to comprise a mix of 60 per cent PET and 40 per cent HDPE – are treated separately from segregated PET and HDPE bottles because the evidence suggests that mixed bottles tend to be shipped via Hong Kong whereas segregated bottles tend to be shipped directly to a Chinese mainland port.

This study was designed to answer the specific question of whether or not the CO2 emissions associated with transporting recovered materials outweigh the CO2 savings that arise from recycling materials rather than landfill and virgin material use.

Second, the research focuses on CO2 emissions only – rather than CO2 equivalents – since these comprise the vast majority of CO2 equivalent emissions from transport in this study.

Finally, the study does not address other potential social, economic and environmental impacts, such as non-greenhouse gases, toxicity or labour standards.

This study suggests that there are CO2 savings to be made from recycling relative to the alternative of landfill and using virgin materials, even if the recovered materials have to be transported to China. That is, the emissions associated with exporting material to China do not outweigh the CO2 benefits of recycling.

This study forms a necessary part of the evidence base to demonstrate that exporting recovered material for export is environmentally sustainable. However, it is not sufficient to demonstrate that exporting is a desirable outcome.

In particular, it makes no assessment of the relative benefits of recycling domestically versus recycling in China.

in Source to be continued....