Recycled packaging 'may end up in landfill', warns watchdog
You try to be virtuous, wiping the curdling yoghurt off a plastic pot, then putting it in the recycling bin. Perhaps you envisage the pot eventually re-incarnated as a frisbee or maybe even a plastic bench.But don’t rest easy. Your pot might get burned or buried in landfill, and you’d never know.The National Audit Office (NAO) says over half of the packaging reported as recycled is actually being sent abroad to be processed. As a result, it says, the government has little idea of whether the recyclables are getting turned into new products, buried in landfill or burned. While an illusion of success has been created by the UK’s system for recycling packaging, the NAO says, the reality may be quite different.Its r...