In a strongly worded statement, the Confederation of Paper Industries, which represents UK mills including Saica, DS Smith and Smurfit Kappa, hit out at waste management firms who “believe” commingled collections can be “justified”.
The Confederation argued that commingled collection “effectively cross-contaminates everything” and pointed to BBC research which claimed earlier this summer that reject rates at materials recycling facilities (MRFs) had risen.
Insist
In a statement the CPI said: “There are those in waste management that insist co-mingling can be justified providing there is a sorting mechanism in place, however CPI considers source separation as the most effective process to maintain material quality.”
The Confederation said that while it was supporting WRAP’s call for greater consistency in household collection systems, waste management companies and councils need to “do more to achieve greater collection consistency to help reverse the rise in recycling rejection rates, due to cross contamination.”
And it claimed that the increase in commingled collections is the reason that more material is being rejected from materials recycling facilities.
Impatience
The CPI’s director of packaging affairs, Andy Barnetson, noted that rising reject rates partially reflects a “growing impatience” among paper mills about the quality of the material they are receiving and then having to shoulder the cost burden of contamination.
He said: “The vast majority of the material recovered from the back of retailers’ stores is corrugated, and that’s pretty clean. The core area of concern for us is post domestic where there’s been a lack of clarity and consistency over methodology for household collection which has led to a decline in quality.
“Increasing energy, water, sorting and waste disposal costs have focused re-processors on the impact of poor quality recycled corrugated. The corrugated industry favours separation at source but a clear and consistent approach to collection, such as that being advocated by WRAP, would provide clarity and simplicity for councils and the public.”
And, Mr Barnetson added, that from “a domestic perspective, awareness of the benefits of recycling is generally on the increase, but around 50% of English authorities employ a co-mingle system when councils should be encouraging more households to separate corrugated from other recyclables, particularly glass and plastic.”
Related links
Confederation of Paper Industries
The waste management companies should be taking more responsibility and so should the government. The waste companies will have promised the LAs great savings and the government through their cuts have necessitated these. It’s all about savings and not about service. There needs to be more team leadership.
An increase in internet shopping with a move away from everything being delivered to offices now that there are more delivery options has moved a lot of cardboard back to the household waste sector. Street recycling banks are a good collection point and save householders from unnecessarily filling a wheelie bin with one box. If only there was some more education on how to flatten a box – especially now that it has been made so much easier to do so with so many!
We also have more people living in less space and fewer cars.