Recycling minister backs destination charter

The End Destinations of Recycling Charter was unveiled today (June 7) by the Resource Association, a trade body for the reprocessing sector, in what it says is a bid “to provide the public with clearer information about where their recycling ends up”.

The Charter is a voluntary initiative to which local authorities in England and Northern Ireland can sign up to.

Lord Taylor commended the Associations efforts and said: “Everyone knows that recycling their rubbish is the right thing to do, but most people are completely unaware of what happens to their recycling after they put it out for collection. This new charter developed by the Resource Association and LARAC provides people with the answers and will hopefully provide an extra incentive for people to recycle more.”

The idea of telling the public where their recycling goes has been discussed for several years and some local authorities already gather the information. There are differing views, however, on how precise the information should be for fears of giving sensitive commercial information away.

The Resource Association is being seen as keen on the register on grounds of better information being provided and partly because most of its membersoperate UK reprocessing plants and would prefer to receive recyclables rather than see them exported.

LARAC

The charter has been backed by the recycling officers association LARAC which said that it will offer greater transparency, which in turn will boost the publics trust in recycling.

Joy Blizzard, chair of LARAC, said: “We welcome this chance to work with all the players involved to provide a robust picture of what happens to the recyclable materials collected from householders.

“Local authorities know that waste and recycling is a service about which residents have strong opinions and perceptions, both positive and negative. In LARACs view, greater transparency will boost the publics trust in recycling, address some of the inaccurate perceptions about where recyclable materials end up, and help local authorities to be confident in the service they provide.”

Waste industry

The Environmental Services Association, which represents waste management companies, also commented on the charter, saying that it was willing to help provide information. A spokesman said: “Recycling is one of the success stories of the last decade and has been built on a flourishing domestic and international market for recyclates which spans the UK, wider EU and the rest of the world.

“ESA members are a key part of this value chain and within the constraints of commercial confidentiality are always willing to help local authorities provide information on recycling to their residents.”

Information

Ray Georgeson, chief executive of the Resource Association, commented: “There is clearly scope to improve the range and level of information that is made available to the public, and the joint aim of the Resource Association and LARAC in initiating the End Destinations of Recycling Charter is to provide a framework through which this can be achieved.”

Local authorities signing up to the charter commit to providing the public with comprehensive and accessible information through the publication of a Register of End Destinations of Recyclates, published at least annually, which covers materials collected and provides the names and locations of the final reprocessing points, both in the UK and abroad.

The Resource Association argued that the Register will not disclose any commercial arrangements such as contract length or price.

Speaking to letsrecycle.com Mr Georgeson said: “Nobody here is saying that information about contracts or prices will be revealed but I think it is important that people know the destination of the material that they put out for recycling. If there are people who say that even that is commercially confidential then we have got to ask questions about where does their interest lie and why the information is so confidential. I genuinely dont see it as a barrier.”

Some exporters of recycled material have recently raised concerns about revealing such information following a ruling by the European Court of Justice (see letsrecycle.com story).

The Charter is aimed primarily at local authorities in England and Northern Ireland as Wales and Scotland are looking to make their own arrangements in terms of information about destinations for recyclable materials.

The Resource Association said it recognises that capturing this information will require cooperation throughout the supply chain and said that a number of major reprocessors have already committed to helping councils with the audit trail and the verification needed in relation to the materials supplied to them for reprocessing.

Poll

A YouGov poll commissioned by the Association found that 73% of UK adults did not know the exact location where the recyclables go for processing and 68% of adults said that more information should be made available.

Of the 351 websites of local authorities in England and Northern Ireland, 61 were found by the Resource Association to include information about the end destination of recycling and the types of products that recycled materials are used to make.