The standards will be to a “British Standards Institute Publicly Available Specification”, a route already being used by WRAP for its compost standards. The glass standards are expected to be used especially by local authorities and Valpak, which runs a collection service for pubs and clubs.
Andy Dawe, WRAP's glass sector manager, said: “A nationally recognised standard for raw cullet will make it easier for reprocessors and glass collectors to talk to each other, will allow more simplified training for local authority recycling officers, and could facilitate more efficient collection.”
David Workman, director general of British Glass, said that the standards would be very helpful, especially as there was a need to increase glass recycling because of increases in packaging waste targets.
“We will see huge increases to in the order of 60% for glass under the packaging waste directive. All sectors of the chain will be involved and the new standards will help everyone to look in the same direction.”
Mr Workman emphasised that the glass industry has invested millions of pounds in sorting equipment and it needs to receive glass cullet “which is of a relatively high quality standard”.
Questioned
News of the specifications, which are expected by WRAP to lead to different prices for the grades of cullet, drew a mixed response from cullet collectors who questioned the need for the standards.
One collection firm manager told letsrecycle.com: “I think it's absolutely ludicrous. It's a commercial process and I am not the specifier, the specifier is the customer. We have to supply to the requirements of the industries we supply to.” And he added: “What WRAP are doing here, I think, is a waste of everybody's time.”
WRAP said that the standard will resolve current confusion among waste collectors about the diversity of specifications used by reprocessors. But the source continued: “There is no confusion. If we can take glass with 5kg of ceramic in it and our competitor can't handle more than 1kg, then that's our advantage. We each work to our strengths and weaknesses.”
Harmonise
The idea behind the standard is to “harmonise the currently diverse cullet specifications used between reprocessors and waste glass suppliers,” WRAP said. It will consist of raw cullet specifications including different grades for mixed colour and colour-separated materials and levels of contamination as well as associated test methods and guidance on collection best practice.
Another collector remarked: “There is no confusion that I know of. I know what my reprocessors want and what they don't want in their glass. I can't see a way this standard would help the industry.”
Defended
But Tim Gent from Midland Glass defended the idea of a standard. “I think it would be useful to have a specification that everybody was happy with,” he said. “All reprocessors need the same kind of quality and this should help to free up the market. If someone is told that their glass isn't up to specification, they need to know what specification it isn't up to. And if when I am exporting glass I can say it meets a British Standard specification, that will help.”
Meetings about the standards take place this month with agreement due by the summer.
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