The original MRF code of practice was written in 2003 in response to the Environment Agency asking industry to self regulate its self on the back of illegal exports of commingled material being sent to the Asian market for sorting.
This code grew into the Recycling Registration Scheme (RRS) which was championed by the ESA and many of its members MRF facilities joined the scheme.
This has never been universally adopted by operators in the UK and Defra is now seeking to make the code of practice mandatory for all companies who collect two or more materials together in volumes greater than 1,000 tonnes per annum.
This is a great step forward in that for the first time it will seek to provide a level playing field for all operators in the sector and it will provide a basic footprint for both operators and regulators to build on. There are those that will argue that it does not go far enough but the reality is that as an initial step it is going as far as it can at this stage.
There are also those who argue that a maximum contamination percentage should be included in the protocol, however, this is impossible for regulators to enforce. Under the current export legislation there are no set maximum contamination levels and for the UK to enforce its own and for then material to be exported knowing that it has an agreed contamination level, would leave UK industry and regulators wide open to legal challenge.
It is important that we ensure the highest possible quality coming out of our recycling facilities as the end user tolerances are increasing year by year. With the increasing self sufficiency of the Asian market over the next decade we will start to see far more re processing being carried out in Europe and for us to compete we will need to meet the very highest quality standards. The MRF protocol is just one of a variety of measures that will be required going forward but we must also remember that this is a chain and all members of that chain from producers to collectors to processors and to re- processors have their role to play.
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