Jacob Hayler, who has been executive director at the ESA since the turn of the year, made the comments at the Kent Resource Partnership’s annual conference in Canterbury yesterday (March 12).
In reference to the collapse of paper processor Aylesford Newsprint, which was placed into administration last month, prompting the closure of its Kent-based mill, Mr Hayler described the picture for councils, waste management firms and recyclers as ‘quite bleak’.
He said: “There has been a steady stream of terrible news on recycling markets. The fundamental issue is that we have been through a huge commodity boom which has helped to hide some structural issues in the way that incentives are spread throughout the supply chain.
“We need diversity of supply and it needs to be robust throughout the market otherwise a single business failure can have a significant impact on the market place.”
Quality
And, Mr Hayler noted that quality of supply is likely to be crucial to the future sustainability of the recycling and waste management industries.
“The big issue for the sector is the lack of control over inputs, in terms of quality and contamination. That is true right across the supply chain. Even local authorities aren’t able to control inputs because there is a certain degree of political pressure to ensure service levels are maintained.
“If there is no quality control, what is the result? There are two responses from the end user: either the price goes up, or inputs are rejected.”
The conference also heard from Phil Conran, the newly appointed chair of the Advisory Committee on Packaging (ACP), who outlined the work that the Committee is to do over the coming year.
He said: “Our priorities include looking at how the packaging regulations might be able to assist in meeting the 2020 local authority recycling targets and what can be done to help. At the moment you have got funding issues and quality issues.”
Target
Later in the day, Defra’s head of waste strategy and regulation Richard Pullen also addressed the situation regarding recycling targets, stating that he had been encouraged by the release of the latest quarterly data for England, which showed that it had reached a seasonal high.
However, he noted that meeting the target of 50% by 2020 is likely to be a challenge from the current position in the mid 40s.
He said: “The latest stats show that we have reached the highest level of recycling to date. Green waste was a big contributor to that. But, it is a statement of the blindingly obvious to say that getting the last 5% from 45% to 50% is a lot more difficult than moving from 20% to 25%.”
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