The stakeholder group was convened in the wake of the exports crisis which hit London earlier this year after a crackdown by the Agency over sending materials abroad for recycling. As a result, some councils in London and South East England came close to having to landfill recyclable material from households.
Any restrictions on exporting recovered materials from households can have a swift effect as the overseas market for recovered paper is essential because of insufficient demand within the UK. The main export material is mixed paper, which is exported as green listed material to a number of countries including China, the Philippines and Indonesia.
Plastic bottles
Agency officials have deemed some container loads of mixed paper to be contaminated because they also contained materials such as plastic bottles and carrier bags. More than 124 containers were opened with 21 by the Agency found to be “illegal”. The containers contained exports of mixed paper collected from the domestic waste stream and some came from the Grosvenor Waste materials recycling facility in north Kent.
Wrangling
Now it has emerged that despite participating in the stakeholder group’s original work the Agency has not committed to accepting its recommendations. The Agency is believed to become caught up in internal wrangling with its export officials taking a very tough line on material quality while others in the Agency aware of the need for mixed paper by overseas mills.
Liz Parkes, the Agency’s senior waste official, has said she is aware of the pressures within London following representations to her over the potential for landfilling of recyclables and the public outcry this would bring. But the Agency has so far not said that it will accept the findings of the working group.
” A percentage figure would be a logical way but I have not got agreement for this “
– Ray Georgeson, WRAP
The stakeholder group is being facilitated by the Waste and Resources Action Programme under the guidance of policy director Ray Georgeson.
Mr Georgeson explained that it had been agreed to set up a smaller working group of those involved to develop work on agreed standards for exported recovered paper. He added that WRAP takes a neutral stance and he is acting as a facilitator.
Methodology
The group will also be developing an agreed methodology for testing of sorted loads for export as well as some MRF stands that will feed into the process.
It seems likely that a percentage figure for contamination of loads could be one of the options but other approaches will also be considered. Mr Georgeson said: “A percentage figure would be a logical way but I have not got agreement for this.” However, other ways are also likely to be looked at because of the difficulty in measuring percentages of other materials.
Some paper industry sources are taking a firm line on the issue and say there should be no question of commingled materials being exported under green list codings. The waste management sector is keen to get a clear line on the whole matter from the Agency.
Working group
An eight member working group has been agreed by the originally 25+ member group which has been working on the exports issue. The eight members are:
- Ray Georgeson – WRAP
- Peter McGuinness – Severnside Recycling
- Chris White – Aylesford Newsprint
- John Viviani – Grosvenor Waste Management
- David Symmers – IWPPA
- Mike Walker – Environmental Services Association
- Kevin Thomas – Biffa Waste Services
- Paul Dumpleton – Shanks
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