New trade body the Resource Association has backed the Government’s desire for high quality recycling and quality standards.
As revealed last week, the Government is consulting on amendments to the Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011.
Resource Association chief executive Ray Georgeson said: “The Resource Association is pleased to see the Governments [in England and Wales] are maintaining momentum in seeking a resolution to outstanding issues on the transposition of the revised Waste Framework Directive. Everybody in the industry needs clarity, and quickly.
“We agree with the sentiment throughout this document that high quality recycling and quality standards must be a priority. We therefore place the utmost importance on the work the Governments will now do to establish an Action Plan on Quality and to encourage the ESA to drive forward work on the MEF Code of Practice. Effective collaboration of the whole supply chain will be the key to successful establishment of quality standards.
“We stand ready to constructively contribute to this, and have already had informal discussions with ESA about reprocessor involvement in the revision of the MRF Code of Practice. Moving this to a mandatory basis will be a welcome step, provided that an effective and transparent regulatory regime is devised alongside a consensus based approach to the setting of quality standards, which fully involves UK reprocessors.”
He said that the debate now has to move on from commingled v kerbside sort and focus on establishing quality standards that can command confidence while encouraging continuous improvement in the consistency and integrity of material made available to UK reprocessors and the wider markets.
Ray Georgeson added: “This means a shift in thinking away from just collection systems, and a fresh focus on agreeing standards, maintaining consistency and transparency in the delivery of materials to a standard, acknowledging that present MRF technology will produce materials to different specifications and establishing new protocols in the relationship between materials supplier and material reprocessor.”
Find out more about this topic at the Achieving High Quality and High Value Recycling conference and networking event on 21 March at Warwick racecourse. Book for just £299+VAT at www.scrap-ex.com/conferences
