Changing perceptions of waste

Paper is a sustainable and renewable resource. It is made from a combination of pulp, sourced, in the main, from certified plantations or from materials recovered from the waste stream. We prefer to maximise potential for the latter option because the overall environmental benefits are huge and paper makers rely heavily on it to achieve exacting targets for reductions in carbon emissions and energy use.

On the face of it paper has an enviable recycling record. Overall rates are in the region of 70% and the average newspaper or corrugated box produced in the UK will contain a recycled content component of 76%.

However, these figures mask a worrying trend. During 2011 we witnessed an increase in the

Raw material

The reason for this trend is that UK mills are increasingly losing faith in the waste industrys ability to supply it with material that is suitable for re-processing. This is why so many of our leading paper producers are actively engaged in diversifying their operations into the fields of recovery and processing of what they see as their raw material.

Anecdotal evidence also suggests that the material we export would fail to meet even the most rudimentary of European quality standards and that the UK is fast developing a reputation for dumping its waste onto foreign markets rather than sorting it properly here.

For paper to have been processed properly it needs to meet a contamination level of less than 2% and preferably less than 1%. This would bring it into line with the European quality standard EN643. This standard should apply to material destined for UK and export markets.

The root cause of this deterioration in quality standards lies in our continued focus on landfill avoidance. I would suggest that the world has moved on and we now need that focus to shift to a resource agenda with carbon reduction and energy efficiency at its heart. Lets stop referring to end of life materials as waste and concentrate on their value as a resource.

Attitudes

This will require a shakeup in our attitudes towards recycling and that needs to start with central government. I cannot understand how a localism agenda can effectively result in policies that will satisfy the needs of the material re-processors. We need to develop material specific policies which would apply right across the UK. This will require more central command and control, more uniformity in the way materials are collected and processed and acceptance by all actors in the chain of universal quality standards which may even need to be mandatory.

The debate over collection systems seems set to continue until the courts finally define the meaning of separate collection under the Waste Framework Directive. However, it seems to me that any system which compacts different end of life materials together is unlikely to produce a product free of contamination. This is particularly true when glass and paper are collected together and then compacted.