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Portuguese recycle record amount of packaging in 2014

Xinhua, February 5, 2015 Adjust font size:

People in Portugal sent a record 419,000 tons of packaging to be recycled in 2014, or a 9-percent increase year-on-year, according to a statement from Portuguese non-profit recycling association, Sociedade Ponto Verde (SPV) and cited by Portuguese news agency Lusa Wednesday.

"This figure is the highest since Sociedade Ponto Verde was set up to manage packaging waste in 1996," the statement said, "or the equivalent of weight 100,000 elephants."

SPV noted that the amount of plastics separated from other waste for recycling by domestic consumers, small retailers and hotels and restaurants rose by 24 percent year-on-year to 87,000 tons. Paper and cardboard collection increased by 16.5 percent to 127,000 tons.

The amount of packaging sent for recycling by industrial and commercial consumers, however, remained largely unchanged at 311,600 tons.

The amount of wood earmarked for recycling in 2014 rose by 30 percent to 4,000 tons, which prevented the felling of 160,000 trees, according to SPV's estimates.

"These record figures are the result of SPV's efforts in complying with its legal obligations," said SPV's director-general Luis Veiga Martins in the statement, adding that SPV believed that "in the next few years, the rate of waste packaging recycling will continue to rise in Portugal." Endit