Speaking about the export issue at the annual British Plastic Association recycling conference in London yesterday (11 October 2012), Mr Green said: “My view is that we can’t legislate against it. We have to accept there is free trade. The best concept that I have heard is increasing the desire for recycled content in packaging which then creates the desire for recycled content within our products. Coca Cola and Procter and Gamble are at the forefront of this.”
Mr Green criticised what he saw as an over-emphasis on recycling legislation which focused on the collection of recyclables. “I am totally fed up with legislation when it comes to putting collection in front. People thought this would be the great driver for recycling. It should be going fantastically well but this is not the case. The PRN hasn’t driven activity the money has gone into the material and put costs up for reprocessors.”
Former WRAP plastics expert Paul Davidson, who now works for SABIC Advanced Plastics, suggested that there was a case for considering measures to increase recycled content. He suggested the UK look to the United States for examples. There are mechanisms there in place that are business friendly which can stimulate demand for material. There is a case for putting these alongside collection requirements, such as a recycled content amount.
Germany
Ton Emans, director of EuPR / director for group recycling of CeDo, pointed to the Blue Angel scheme in Germany which recognised recycled content levels and said that his firm would have 50% of its product made of recycled material by 2020 although he noted that cost of material remains an issue. He argued: “Converters would be more willing to take up recyclates if they were cheaper.”
The discussion on exports then turned to domestic recycling. Mr Green explained how plastic had replaced some other packaging materials for a range of products. There has been a dramatic increase in the fraction of plastic packaging domestically. There is a lot of light-weighting but increasing amount in the waste stream which can’t be recycled, such as pouches where we are moving glass and tin into pouches.
He assured the audience that he wasn’t suggesting a return to metal andglass as packaging because they could be recycled. I am not suggesting we should make it more easy to recycle, it goes against the grain of carbon savings and light-weighting.
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