Commenting on revised figures issued by the Environment Agency earlier this month that showed a 17% higher amount of WEEE collected by producer compliance schemes than indicated in March, Axion Recycling's technical director Keith Freegard has questioned whether the UK's implementation of the WEEE Directive is going to deliver its aims for the first compliance period.
Mr Freegard's comments come in the wake of a meeting between the sector and BERR over data (see letsrecycle.com story).
He said: “It's a confused situation. I'm concerned that there is a potential mountain of shredded plastic that is not being recycled to appropriate standards. This relates particularly to commingled household WEEE that is more difficult to process because of the contaminants,” he said.
“The technology exists here in the UK, but I doubt it can be reprocessed to equivalent standards overseas.”
Mr Freegard also questioned the amount of WEEE recycling evidence for the July to December 2007 compliance period, particularly with regard to the figures for household and business WEEE collected in the UK put at 184,760 tonnes and just over 10,000 tonnes respectively. The total amount of electrical and electronic equipment put on the market has been revised to 793,439 tonnes.
The Axion director said the gap in the figures suggests “serious shortcomings” in the evidence reporting process and feedback to compliance schemes.
He said: “From those numbers, you could quite quickly estimate how much of the total amount of plastic was coming through in the WEEE. Where is all this going to? Where's the evidence that brominated polymers are being separately removed and treated? We can provide this evidence as per the WEEE Directive, but I don't think exporters can.”
Polymers
Axion operates a purpose-built processing plant in Salford and produces high-grade polymers from mixed small WEEE, and fridge and monitor plastic. Recent £500,000 investment in more sophisticated separation techniques is improving the yield of high-grade plastic material from mixed small WEEE, the company said.
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