A constructive dialogue between councils and reprocessors on contamination levels in recycling has been welcomed by the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee (LARAC).
Andrew Bird, chair of LARAC, congratulated reprocessors for their positive approach after the Resource Association launched a new tool designed to assist councils on the quality requirements for recycled materials.
Launched this week, the ReQip (Recycling Quality Information Point) online tool sets out targets with acceptable contamination levels for different recyclable materials, and comes after Defra called on the waste industry to provide its own advice on TEEP and separate collections (see letsrecycle.com story).
The regulations, which apply to local authorities in England and Wales state that separate collections of at least paper, metal, plastic and glass are required where they are technically, environmentally and economically practicable (TEEP) and appropriate to meet the necessary quality standards for the relevant recycling sectors by January 2015.
In order to comply with the European Waste Framework Directive and UK Waste Regulations, LARAC also helped produce a route map to help individual councils to decide on whether their collection system would meet the requirements of the regulations.
The organisation does however believe there is still work to be done to ensure the right incentives and funding streams are in place so that local authorities can collect material of an appropriate quality while still managing ongoing budget cuts.
Constructive
Mr Bird said: “LARAC is keen to have constructive dialogue with reprocesors as we both form different parts of the same supply chain and the Resource Association is positive in its approach to local authorities.
Obviously details such as contamination levels of different materials will always be a matter of the various contracts that local authorities have with each reprocessor but the tool could be useful to consider prior to procurement processes by local authorities.
Mr Bird also welcomed the comments from the Association which indicate that legal action against local authorities over commingling and TEEP is not being considered.
He also stated that LARAC has a long working relationship with the Resource Association and is keen to continue to work together to provide appropriate quality material to the market place.
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