And, the Agency said failure to reach quality levels could cause “major problems” because of a “10-year lead in to design, finance and build extra capacity in the waste stream.”
In a meeting discussing waste data this summer, the Environment Agency gave a presentation to clarify what it expects from local authorities when reporting end destinations for recycled waste.
The Agency explained that following the Chinese ban it has become apparent that some materials being exported “under the premise of being on the green list” were not of sufficient quality to meet the quality requirements, and that now other export destinations (Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, India and others) were in the process of applying similar standards to the Chinese, or increasing port inspections.
Destinations
It also said that the information provided by local authorities about the final destinations of recycling is going to become “increasingly important” in light of the possibility of temporary trade bans.
The presentation also highlighted that “big fires of stockpiled material which had been exported to non-existent processing plants abroad has led to countries raising concerns about material quality”, with Poland named.
Brokers
In response to the presentation, local authorities raised concerns over dealing with waste brokers, as many view final destination information for waste as commercially sensitive,
In response, the Agency said that while it acknowledges this can be difficult, it does not see the information as commercial and questioned whether councils would have an agreement with their contractors/brokers that this information will be provided to them.
Attendees from Defra were also present at the meeting, and responded to another question on brokers by saying that if the end destination isn’t known, the material could not be counted as part of recycling figures.
“‘Site details not known’ or ‘Multiple destinations’ could be used as appropriate [if broker information was known but not end destination]”, the Defra spokesperson said.
They added: “If the end treatment was not known, then “Treatment unknown” could be used but the associated tonnage would not be reported as recycled.”
Duty of care
The Environment Agency reiterated in its presentation that as long as councils provide robust evidence that its waste is being recycled, and ensure that a UK destination will be the final reprocessor or MRF prior to the material being exported , then a council will generally meet its duty of care.
The Agency also said that “nothing has changed in relation to the regulation or guidance” for exporting recyclates.
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