Recycled paper guidelines and standards due out this year

Guidelines are being produced to help councils improve paper collections, and to meet export regulations

Standards including WRAP's PAS 105, the CPI Export Code of Practice and the ESA's Recycling Registration Scheme have all been in development since July 2005, when an inconclusive meeting took place between members of the waste management and the paper industries (see letsrecycle.com story).

Currently recovered paper merchants in the UK follow guidelines such as the Recovered Paper Quality Control Guidelines (CEPI and ERPA, 2004) and EN 643, European List of Standard Grades of Recovered Paper and Board for recovered paper purchasing.

WRAP helped to produce the EN 643. However neither of these specify an accepted contamination rate for export material.

WRAP
WRAP – the Waste & Resources Action Programme – has been working with a range of stakeholders and reprocessors to develop a best practice standard for domestic paper recovery called the PAS 105 recovered paper sourcing and quality for UK end markets.

The PAS 105 standard is for waste management companies, paper mills, reprocessors and local authorities. It will be officially published by the BSI (British Standards Institution).

Commenting on the standard, Liz Goodwin, director of construction and manufacturing at WRAP, said: “It was initiated after local authorities expressed concern about the lack of clarity about what grade paper they should be collecting and what standards they need to meet. The comments at the meetings show that this is exactly what our document does.”

CPI
The CPI – Confederation of Paper Industries – represents the majority of the recovered paper industry and has also developed a code of practice, called the Export Code of Practice, which is due to be released in the next month.

The Code of Practice has been developed by CPI and the Independent Waste Paper Processors Association. In its 2005 annual review, the CPI explained that the Code would concentrate on the key requirements of managing and controlling the output quality of recovered paper. It added that the Code was designed to give regulators the confidence that the material shipped to overseas reprocessors meets the requirements of the Waste Shipment Regulations.

Although the paper sector already has the EN 643 quality standard, Peter Seggie, CPI’s recovered paper sector manager explained: “The guidance stemmed from the need to give assurance to regulators about material leaving UK – a standard that’s for shipment regulations. The problem with the EN643 is that it provides no defined output levels.”

ESA
The ESA – Environmental Services Association – has also been developing a quality assurance system, called the Recycling Registration Scheme. This aims to ensure consistent quality standards and improve the transparency and traceability in management of material sent overseas for recycling and reprocessing.

The scheme also aims to improve confidence of local authorities and regulators in how the material is managed.

A pilot phase has started and the full scheme is expected to be fully operational by the end of the year. It should be open to all facilities to join, with materials originating from a registered facility being clearly identifiable.

Mike Walker, director of policy at ESA, said: “Our scheme will ensure materials sent for recycling recycled are of high quality and will be processed in regulated facilities. In addition, the scheme's flexibility supports existing market specifications and supports rather than cutting across export market.”