The Association, which includes Veolia, Viridor, Greenstar UK, SITA UK and Community Waste among its membership, said that the report “lacks credibility” due to a lack of “adequate” consultation with MRF operators when it was being compiled.
And, it also claimed that there were a number of factors of the report that it believed were “materially incorrect”.
A spokesman for the organisation said: “The Recycling Association, which recently formed a MRF Operators Sector, is concerned that the document is flawed and should be publicly withdrawn and retracted immediately.
“It has been issued without adequate consultation with the MRF operators, either directly or through representative trade associations. Without holding such consultations with one of the principal and key sectors the document lacks credibility. There are also a number of factors that are considered to be materially incorrect.”
In particular, the group stressed that any study of the sort undertaken by WRAP should focus on the quality of recyclables produced by the process, and not just the collection method used.
He said: “The practicality and economics of different collections cannot be easily assessed or compared and certainly cannot be determined without input from the MRF operators themselves.”
“The issue should not concentrate on the method of collection but should be more concerned about improving output quality regardless of the type of recovery system,” added the spokesman.
The WRAP report has already divided opinion within the waste and recycling sector, winning support from advocates of source-separation such as the Welsh Assembly Government (see letsrecycle.com story).
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