Recycling minister has faith in commingling

Recycling minister Lord Taylor yesterday (January 16) asserted his faith in commingled recycling as he officially opened Casepaks 21 million MRF in Leicester.

The Casepak facility, at the Braunstone Industrial Park on the outskirts of Leicester, began operations in September 2011 (see letsrecycle.com story), after a two-year planning and construction process.

The MRF has the capacity to process 150,000 tonnes-a-year of commingled dry recyclables from businesses and households, including paper, card, plastics, metal and glass. In total, Casepak aims to recover around 95% of the material processed and produce a high quality end product with the remainder used as fuel for energy recovery.

Officially opening the plant, Lord Taylor said: This facility shows the courage in its conviction, and I would like to pay tribute to the fact that this is a family-run enterprise. If we are to get the quality of recyclate that we want to benefit the recycling market we will need more quality facilities such as this.

Lord Taylor cited the Casepak facility as proof that commingled recycling collections could yield a high quality end-product, in the face of criticism from the Campaign for Real Recycling (CRR).

Commingling

Responding to concerns raised by guests at the launch of the Leicester MRF, Lord Taylor said: I believe facilities like this are a pathway for future investment, if we did not have faith in commingled recycling I would not be here.

The CRR had legally challenged the governments interpretation of the Waste Framework Directive, claiming that the government are legally obliged to provide source separate collections of waste. A Judicial Review had been scheduled to be heard in December 2011, but was adjourned for six months, after Defra announced that it would be amending its waste regulations to retain the flexibility for councils to offer source separated or commingled recycling collections (see letsrecycle.com story).

Speaking at yesterdays event, Lord Taylor said: We have been fortunate that the case has been adjourned, but we cant be totally relaxed until a formal judgement is made.

MRF

The opening of the Casepak MRF almost doubles the companys overall sorting capacity to around 300,000 tonnes per year, when operating alongside itsd existing paper and plastics sorting and reprocessing facility in Enderby, Leicestershire. The Leicester site houses some of the latest sorting technology, including a 50-100mm bypass screen imported from the USA which recognises and separates highly compacted materials and a de-inking screen, which recognises and separates fibre grades.

Mark Smith, joint managing director and son of Casepak founder George Smith, said: Opening this facility represents a significant step for us. Since the MRF became operational in September we have already secured contracts to manage several local councils recyclable material streams and we aim to do more of the same in 2012.

Our first shift is already complete and our emphasis will continue to be on securing new contracts and working with our customers and recycling partners to ensure that we can deliver the good quality materials required by the reprocessing industries.

Casepak is jointly owned by G.A.E. Smith Holdings Ltd and SCA Recycling Ltd, who it was announced today is thesubjectofa1.3 billionacquisition involving UK-based DS Smith Group, owners of DS Smith Recycling (see letsrecycle.com story). If the deal is confirmed DS Smith will have joint ownership of the Leicester MRF.