Speaking at conference on materials recycling facilities last week in Birmingham, Robert Vaughan, head of the Defra recycling team, said that the scope of the consistency work was that it “is a voluntary approach” and “not about one size fitting all local authorities as it needs to take account of different geographic conditions and areas”.
He explained that the issues under discussion include:
- Collection systems but not just collection systems
- Range of materials collected
- Infrastructure
- Recyclability
- End markets
- Labelling and communications
- Improving drivers for change
- legal considerations
Mr Vaughan referred to the recent recycling figures and said that green waste was making a significant contribution to the overall rate and that it was noticeable that landfill volumes for municipal waste were lower. “But, the separation of collected food waste is increasing very slowly and we want to see more of that.”
He emphasised that recycling minister Rory Stewart is “very seized about the notion of consistency” and referred to the minister’s comments at RWM earlier this year. He said then: “I would like to see much more working together and standardisation between different councils in this country. There are maybe over 100 different ways in which recycling is done if we could get that down to 5 or 6 it would make a huge difference. There is potential for recycling to be done more cheaply and more efficiently but it is about persuasion and local authorities working together to make it simpler for public industry and each other.”
Consistency
“Consistency can mean different things to different people,” Mr Vaughan told delegates to the Birmingham event. He continued: “But in order for it to be useful it should as a minimum: increase the quantity and quality of recycling collected; provide value for money and in particular savings; obtain customer support and be simple and easy to follow by householders.”
Mr Vaughan also referred to the Circular Economy package and the revised legislative proposals on waste. He selected a number of key elements of the proposal for mention including the 65% recycling target for municipal waste and the 75% recycling of packaging waste by 2030 as well as the landfill maximum of 10% by 2030.
The Defra official also noted there were measures on:
- A ban on landfilling of separately collected waste;
- Promotion of economic instruments to discourage landfilling;
- Simplified and improved definitions and harmonised calculation methods for recycling rates throughout the EU;
- Concrete measures to promote re-use and stimulate industrial symbiosis –turning one industry’s by-product into another industry’s raw material;
- Economic incentives for producers to put greener products on the market and support recovery and recycling schemes (e.g. for packaging, batteries, electric and electronic equipment, vehicles).”
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