The falling price of recovered materials could make it more difficult for councils to collect “cost marginal” materials such as mixed plastics, the LGA has suggested.
Over the last few months, increasing public and government pressure has meant that organisations such as WRAP and Recoup have been leading a drive to see the material collected more for reprocessing.
The government is encouraging the roll out of plastics and cost-marginal material. If it is even more uneconomical to do so and the government expects us to do it we will need funding to do it
Tony Ripley, LGA
This has included plans for large scale trials and detailed research (see letsrecycle.com story).
However, speaking to letsrecycle.com yesterday, the LGA's spokesman for waste, Tony Ripley, warned that the falling value of recovered materials could make councils re-think plans to collect the material.
In particular, he pointed out that councils would need financial assistance if they were expected to collect it.
The issue is to be examined by the LGA as part of its working group on waste costs for local authorities ahead of the next spending review.
He said: “It is likely to have an effect on the viability of new recycling collections. For example, the government is encouraging the roll out of plastics and cost-marginal material. If it is even more uneconomical to do so and the government expects us to do it we will need funding to do it.”
Specifications
Mr Ripley's comments came after plastics recycling organisation Recoup revealed that it was preparing new specifications for mixed plastics in a bid to help streamline collections of the material.
The specifications are to be launched in a few weeks following consultation with industry and are intended to help councils and waste management companies to standardise their understanding of mixed plastics as current collections of non-bottle domestic plastics are not consistent.
It is likely that one of the specifications will relate to rigid mixed plastics, which some councils are considering collecting as an alternative to all mixed plastics, as they are deemed easier to sort and reprocess than, for instance, plastic film.
Stuart Foster, Recoup's senior project manager, told letsrecycle.com: “The specifications will not be so prescriptive as to say it has to be done this way but there will be hooks and guidance to help those hoping to improve their mixed plastics specifications. We want it to be something very robust and realistic.”
“We are hoping these specifications could become standard and will be used as a starting point for bringing mixed plastics recycling forward,” he added.
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