The campaign argues that while it is aware of quality issues, the campaign is about driving up recycling levels. Just hours before the launch of this year's weeklong event which started on June 2, 2007, Recycle Now Week was publicly criticised by the recovered paper sector.
Quality
The newsprint sector, through the Confederation of Paper Industries' campaign organisation Paperchain, announced its withdrawal of support for Recycle Now Week. Paperchain argued that the campaign should focus more on quality as well as quantity and said that Recycle Now Week in its current approach is not supporting the “long term sustainability of recycling”. (see letsrecycle.com story)
The organisers of Recycle Now Week – four reprocessors: British Glass, Corus, Novelis, Recoup; and WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) – have now moved to clarify the campaign's role and emphasised the primary aims is not to address contamination.
Sectors
Spokeswoman Amanda Barry Hirst said: “Material quality is recognised as an important issue, but is not the focus of Recycle Now Week. All sectors of the recycling industry have a role to play in improving material quality and a number of initiatives are underway to address the issues.
“It is not practical for Recycle Now Week to deliver detailed material quality messages to householders, as collection systems vary between local authorities. However, consumers are regularly encouraged to contact their local authority to check details of their local recycling system.”
The campaign spokeswoman also said that the recycling-promotion week has had “excellent” support from local authorities, who were running a range of events and provided a platform for them to communicate details of their own collection systems and quality requirements. And, he added that the approach was “clearly working” because 27% of household waste is now recycled, double the amount of three years ago.
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