The draft material recycling standard lays down a procedure by which design, production and use of packaging can be checked against the requirements of material recycling , systems. This, however, requires familiarity with the 'expected and available' recycling processes. David Smith summarises the route by which plastic bottles are recycled and introduces some of the packaging design factors which can impact on recyclability. Since 1st January 2000, packaging placed on the EU market must comply with Essential Requirements. As a component of this, packaging must be assessed against at least one and, if appropriate, all the standards on material recovery, energy recovery and organic recovery. Packaging designed with little or no consideration for recycling increases the cost of recycling, impacting upon the recycling of not just the individual piece of packaging, but other packaging materials.
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