The group met at the Association’s head office in Daventry on Wednesday (April 29) where it was agreed that it would meet regularly, with issues to be fed through to the Association’s board of directors. Issues at the top of the group’s agenda include plastics scrap exports and PRNs.
A plastics specialist from the Plastics Focus Group is also set to be appointed to the Recycling Association board.
The Recycling Association has traditionally lobbied on issues around the waste paper market, but has sought to diversify its operations with more of its members having moved into the plastics market in recent years.
Businesses involved in the formation of the plastics group include CK Polymers, Plasgran, Acorn Recycling, Land Polymers, PDS Ltd and 99p Recycling.
Commenting following the meeting, the Association’s chief executive, Simon Ellin, said: “Many of our established members have diversified their operations over the past few years where recovered plastics have become an integral part of their businesses and we felt we needed to offer them greater representation.
Priorities
“In addition to this, we were approached by other dedicated plastics recyclers whom felt underrepresented in certain areas of their businesses and had noticed similarities between their own concerns and what The Recycling Association have been campaigning on primarily for the paper industry – these include threats to exports, the PRN/PERN issue, overzealous compliance, commercial insurance issues and to promote confidence in the use of recycled plastics.”
Dr Ellin added that a number of businesses were invited to attend the meeting, with some of those in attendance now becoming full Recycling Association members.
He added: “We firmly believe that by combining the forces of paper and plastics, we can gain an even greater voice with which to influence decision makers. Trading is still tough out there and we believe that by protecting UK interests whilst keeping an open and level playing field for exports with sensible compliance, we can continue to nurture the fantastic success story that is the UK recycling infrastructure. If we merge the common voices of paper and plastics together, we can create a much stronger voice with which to achieve our objectives.”
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