Glass recycler warns of “gate fee system coming into play”

Mick Keogh, general manager of Berryman's, one of the largest glass collectors in the country, said the container industry is only just managing to keep up with the rising tide of mixed glass collections.

Berryman says the UK has coped with its “green glass mountain” but may have problems in the future

But, he said the increasing investment in colour-sorting capacity would not match the surge in the number of councils collecting glass without separating colours at source.

Much of the increase has come through new kerbside recycling schemes expanding nationwide, but Mr Keogh also noted the appearance of mixed glass bottle banks.

Speaking at Defra's major packaging recovery conference on Tuesday, Mr Keogh warned that the more mixed glass collected, the less value it would ultimately have both environmentally and financially.

He said: “At the moment, the glass container industry dominates the market for recycled glass. My fear is if we go down the route of collecting more and more mixed glass the only industry taking it would be the aggregate industry, and that industry could then dominate, but that would be of no value. Then we would see a gate fee system coming into play.”

Concerns
Mr Keogh was addressing a cross-sector audience of organisations with an interest in meeting Europe's next packaging recovery targets, set for 2008. On current trends, the Berryman general manager said it was likely that the glass recycling targets would be met in terms of tonnage by that year. He said: “I'm not too worried about the volumes as we get to 2008. What concerns me more is what condition that glass is collected.”

“With some of the alternative markets we have now, we have done away with the glass mountains talked about in the past. We don't have a problem achieving the tonnages, but it is about making sure they are sustainable,” he explained.

Mr Keogh suggested producer responsibility money might be best used improving the way glass is collected from the waste stream.

He said it was particularly important to send recycled glass to the UK container industry because of shortages in fossil fuels, shortages that have helped lead to a 300% increase in the price of gas in the last three years.

“Local authorities can take out the weight of green waste from the bins but they can afford to leave the glass in the bins. We do need local authorities to help get that glass out,” he said.