Call for mandatory regimes to raise recycling input quality

During a government consultation period running up to the end of April, responses from individual recycling businesses and sector associations indicated that statutory measures were necessary to halt a slide in the quality of recycling input materials across different sectors.

At recycler ECO Plastics, md Jonathan Short said: "All the main stakeholders are asking for these measures to be made mandatory."​ The worry, he said, was that the government's very public dislike of red tape would take it in the opposite direction.

In decline​

In plastics recycling, Short said, the quality of sorted waste from UK MRFs had been in decline for around two years. "Typically, there is up to 15% non-plastics waste, including dirt and paper, which needs to be removed from a bale before we can start reprocessing."​ He added: "There seems to be a commercial advantage in mixing in this sort of material."​

Short added: "We have been particularly encouraged by the Environmental Services Association (ESA) coming out and saying that a mandatory approach should be taken to the problem."​ He explained that the ESA represented some 75% of UK MRFs. "The ESA also accepts there should be a higher level of sampling."​

Critical importance ​

This issue of sampling, or testing, is of critical importance. In a statement, director of policy at the ESA Matthew Farrow said: "The sampling done by MRFs needs to be robust enough to be representative of the material streams without adding unnecessary cost."​ He recommended larger and more frequent samples than the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is proposing.

Short at ECO Plastics said in his experience testing, though costly, paid for itself "many times over".​