The judge broadly found in favour of Defra and the Welsh Government who are to scrutinise the judgement before commenting further. Similarly, the Campaign for Real Recycling (CRR) is also reviewing the judgement.
CRR considers that material collected commingled is often not of sufficient quality for reprocessors to use. CRR members pursuing the case against the government include Ardagh Glass, DS Smith Paper Ltd, Novelis UK, Palm Recycling, Smurfit Kappa and UK Recyclate Ltd.
In setting out their argument last month the claimants said that the legal heart of the case was the differing interpretation of the Directive, while the practical heart was the desire of waste management companies to preserve a regime where materials are collected together at the kerbside and separated at materials recycling facilities (MRFs) to the financial gain of the waste management firms.
The judge was also told by the claimants that materials collected through a kerbside sort system rarely exceeded 0.5% whereas commingled collections produce a reject-rate of around 10%.
Response
The first response to todays ruling came from waste management companies through their trade association the Environmental Services Association. Director general, Barry Dennis said: The ESA has always believed that both the Directive and the revised Defra regulations recognise that decisions over local collection methods are complex and that local discretion over the format of recycling collections is needed to ensure that the Directives objectives are met. We are therefore pleased that the Judge, having examined the matter in great depth, has taken the same view.
However, this is not expected to be the end of the matter as quality concerns remain and the claimants are likely to consider an appeal.
The case comes against a background of continuing concerns about the quality of material from materials recycling facilities. Defra is working on a quality action plan which includes a registration scheme for MRFs but there is still disagreement over this.
Some experts consider that there will be changes in the future, such as more separate collection of paper and in urban areas separate collection of glass.
