Dairy Industry celebrates green success and calls for a “recycling revolution” to hit new target
The UK dairy industry is ready to take its environmental performance to the next level despite dairy companies meeting all of their sustainability targets to date.
The Dairy Roadmap, launched today by Defra Minister Jim Paice, demonstrates that dairy processors have met all their environmental targets to date, including a minimum 10% recycled plastic in milk bottles.
However, Dairy UK said today that a recycling revolution in the supply of recycled plastic to the dairy industry would be essential if the industry is to meet the targets it has set itself for the future.
In 2010, more than 70% of milk bottles purchased in the UK were recovered for recycling and more than 12,000 tonnes of plastic was recycled into fresh bottles. This helped to reduce emissions from packaging in the sector by 27,000 tonnes in 2010 alone.
The next target the industry has set itself is to achieve a minimum 30% recycled plastic in milk bottles.
Jim Begg, Dairy UK Director General explained the problem. As the industrys environmental performance continues to improve, recycled plastic becomes an ever scarcer resource. Just as we are upping our game, we need the recycling industry to up theirs and provide us with the materials that will enable us to achieve our ambitious next set of targets.
We need more and more recycled plastic and what we need to see is a recycling revolution with a major expansion of the operations of existing recycling companies and the creation of new firms which will deliver the materials we will need.
1. The Dairy Roadmap was launched today at the House of Commons by Jim Paice MP, Minister of State for Agriculture and Food.
2. This initiative first took shape in 2008 as the Milk Roadmap. In 2009 the One Year Down The Road report was published. The expanded Dairy Roadmap demonstrates how the sector has moved forward since 2008.
3. The Dairy Roadmap shows that dairy processors have achieved all their targets, which are:
A minimum of 10% recycled plastic in milk bottles
All processors will meet or beat energy and CO2 reductions of the sector Climate Change Agreement
Dairy UK will operate an environmental benchmarking and best practice performance programme which will publish an annual sustainability report providing progress of evidence towards targets.
About Dairy UK:
Dairy UK is a trade association that represents the interests of dairy farmers, producer co-ops, milk processors and doorstep deliverymen. For more information visit www.dairyUK.org.