That is the view of paper recycling firm Atlantic Paper, which is furious that the Environment Agency has so far determined only that paper bound for export should have a “trivial” amount of contamination.
Europe's IMPEL team monitoring transfrontier shipments has also agreed that “trivial” amounts of contamination in paper loads should be “no problem” under EU shipment laws (see letsrecycle.com story).
London-based Atlantic Paper said that after years of consultation with the industry, clarification has still not come from the UK or European authorities.
Regulations
Some Agency officials have interpreted the Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Regulations as meaning absolutely no contamination is allowed in waste loads being shipped out of the UK under “green list” controls.
But, Bruce Terrell of Atlantic Paper said this zero contamination level was “impossible” in the secondary raw materials industry, and that the official PAS 105 public standard for paper recycling states that 2% contamination levels should be the maximum for UK waste paper sales.
With other Agency and European officials saying a “minimal” or “trivial” level of contamination is acceptable, Mr Terrell suggested they were “studiously” attempting to avoid having to set unambiguous rules for the percentage of contamination that is acceptable in waste paper exports.
“What, apart from apathy, is preventing the UK government from deciding once and for all what the rules for export sales should be?” he said.
Interpretations
Mr Terrell was responding to the comments of Dutch official Dr Albert Klingenberg, who said his organisation IMPEL still had concerns about material shipped from UK, Ireland and Germany, and that “illegal” shipments faced fines of about £345 per tonne.
In particular, Mr Terrell highlighted the comments of Dr Klingenberg that: “I agree with the Environment Agency that a trivial amount of contamination in the paper is not a problem.”
The Atlantic Paper director responded: “It is impossible to run serious businesses on the basis of phrases that are open to all sorts of interpretations. Yet the officials both here and, it appears, in Holland studiously avoid clarification. This is despite literally years of consultation at the highest level with our industry representatives. Everybody knows that zero contamination is impossible in secondary raw materials and yet this lack of clarity in its own rules has led EA cargo inspectors to enforce this unrealistic standard in respect of waste paper exports.
“Is it really too much to ask that someone in government should at long last take the time to resolve this situation?” Mr Terrell added.
“The result of this abdication of political leadership is that the UK is exporting over four million tonnes per year of waste paper when we don't know whether – technically speaking – it is 100% legal… Or should that be: whether it is 'minimally' or 'trivially' illegal?”
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