PaperChain revealed yesterday (February 24) that its members, which include Aylesford Newsprint, SCA Recycling, Smurfitt Kappa, St Regis Paper and UPM-Kymmene, had yet to agree on the bodys continued involvement in the campaign.
The chairman of PaperChain, Simon Weston, said: PaperChains continuing support for the Campaign for Real Recycling is a matter yet to be discussed and agreed upon by its Members.
PaperChain added that it had no current desire to be involved in the judicial review that the Campaign for Real Recycling (CRR) threatened to launch after Defra this month revealed that commingling would count towards the separate collection of recyclables required under European Law from 2015 (see letsrecycle.com story).
But, it also said it respected the decision by other CRR members to take the matter forward, and stressed that it supported the CRRs ambition to secure the highest quality raw material for reprocessing.
It also questioned the arguments it said had been made by some companies running commingled collections that the approach was a necessity to achieve recycling rate increases.
This is not the case in other European countries that maintain significantly higher recycling rates than the UK, through predominantly separate collection at source, it added.
MRFs
Echoing comments made by other organisations representing the paper recycling sector (see letsrecycle.com story) Mr Weston noted the role that MRFs could play in helping to source high-quality materials.
PaperChain accepts that currently some MRFs in the UK separating dry, mixed recyclate collections produce recovered paper fit for efficient reprocessing into new paper products, both in the UK and overseas. These MRFs are supported by UK paper reprocessors, he said.
Mr Weston also called for a clarification of exactly what commingled collection entails, to help provide the clean and consistent feedstock needed by MRFs to achieve those standards
Defining what co-mingled collection actually means now will precipitate improvements in this area to the benefit of the entire resource efficiency chain, he said.
Legal challenges
And, PaperChain also claimed, with a lack of any definition for commingling in UK or European law, clarification would also help to remove the potential for further legal challenges at a local level under either the localism or Big Society agendas.
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