Campaign demands inquiry into English recycling costs

Following the publication of new figures showing that recycling costs in Wales vary from £36 to £1,000 a tonne (see letsrecycle.com story), the Campaign for Real Recycling has warned that this could be just part of a “national scandal” across the UK.

The campaign was set up in March to fight against commingled collections, which supporters believe reduces material quality (see letsrecycle.com story). Campaign backers include UPM Shotton, Abitibi Consolidated, Aylesford and paper industry body PaperChain.

Following publication of the Welsh report, the campaign wants to know how much it costs councils to separate materials at the kerbside in England compared to automatic sorting at a materials recycling facility.

Andy Doran, national manager of Novelis Recycling, told letsrecycle.com yesterday: “The report delivers part of a jigsaw and we should take it seriously and see if its patterns are more widely demonstrated across the UK.”

“It is unclear whether it costs more to separately collect material at the kerbside and the report suggests it could cost less and we want to see if that is applicable across the whole of the UK as we could all benefit,” he explained.

Costs

Phil Hurst, of Wales Community Recycling Network CYLCH, also a member of the Campaign, said that he did not believe Wales was a “special case” with regard to recycling costs.

He said: “If the budget variations in England are anything like those found in Wales we are looking at a national scandal. We know there is a wide variety of collections systems used in England – we suspect there are similarly huge variations in costs as well.”

Mr Hurst questioned why the Audit Office had not made any recommendations on costs following its inspections of “numerous” local authorities.

“The government needs to grab this issue by the horns,” he said. “We must standardise how these recycling and waste budgets are arrived at. A set of economic, environmental and social criteria that local authorities must include when they design their waste contacts is needed.”

Smurfit

The announcement from the Campaign for Real Recycling came as paper company Smurfit Kappa Recycling, which has mills in Birmingham and Kent, renewed its support for the cause through its membership with PaperChain.

It is believed that now PaperChain represents over 82% of recovered fibre usage in the UK.

Simon Weston, managing director at Smurfit Kappa Recycling said, “Collecting high quality materials close to home and then reprocessing them at UK mills is clearly in the best interests of society, the environment and UK industry. This is why we wholeheartedly support PaperChain and its involvement with the Campaign for Real Recycling.”