Mary Corin comes to the new position with ten years of experience in the recycling sector, having previously worked with Valpak, Aylesford Newsprint and British Steel.
Hampshire's Project Integra waste partnership has been the flagship contract for Onyx and one of the UK's recycling success stories with municipal recycling rates for the county at about 22%. But this year has seen some difficulties in finding sufficient facilities and end markets for the materials collected, which resulted in the landfilling of some recyclables last year (see letsrecycle.com story).
Ms Corin's new position was created to develop the supply chain of recyclable materials collected by the 14 local authorities in the Hampshire partnership and look into the viability and sustainability of end markets for those materials to achieve Best Value.
Speaking to letsrecycle.com about her new role, she said: “We are in an evolutionary industry, and a lot of it is undeveloped. The way of dealing with it is to look at it as a supply chain – the way I see it is that we are simply a raw materials industry. Some of the industry has struggled – there's been a lot of problems with finding a place for the material to go, but you've got to see demand pulling it through. It's up to these newer industries to prove that their recycled material is just as good as virgin material.”
She explained: “What I learned at Aylesford is that as long as you can prove that your product is as good as virgin material, people don't care whether it's come from a recycled source.”
Review
One of the first things Ms Corin will be involved in is a full review of Hampshire's current arrangements, established markets for the materials and more research into new and emerging markets.
She will also be helping with other Onyx contracts – notably the Sheffield contract and the new East Sussex contract (see letsrecycle.com story). She will also be on hand to provide advice on the materials markets and supply chain for the tendering process.
An important part of her work this year will be talking to reprocessors about the state of the PRN market, particularly with expectations of increased packaging waste recovery targets next year.
“We're talking to reprocessors about it at the moment,” she explained. “There's no doubt that next year is going to be very difficult. But it's all about strategic alliances. We have to look at this with a longer term view. When the UK plc capacity is full, though, we'll have to look again.”
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