THE plastics industry has launched a new initiative which could help Bexley meet its latest ambitious recycling target.

Plastics 2020 Challenge was unveiled to MPs and council leaders at Westminster last week and focuses on reducing, reusing, recycling and recovering plastic.

The plastics industry is worth £19bn to the UK economy and employs 186,000 people and its products have become indespensible to modern life, yet most of it once used, is discarded to landfill.

Now the industry has committed itself to use less resources in the manufacture of plastics to create lighter, thinner and stronger products.

It also wants to see more plastic items reused, such as plastic crating and plastic bags Although lots of plastic items can be reycled into items such as bin liners, recycling mixed plastics has been more difficult.

Now trials are underway to see if food trays, yoghurt pots, margarine and ice cream tubs can be made into into new products.

And the challenge sees waste-to-energy incineration as the solution for plastic tainted by food or other products which it says would “recover” some of the energy used to make it.

To find out more go to plastics2020challenge.com