And, there is an ‘important distinction’ between end destinations reported by councils on WasteDataFlow and where the materials are finally reprocessed to achieve end-of-waste status.
The findings have been laid out in Eunomia’s Recycling Destinations Data Review, which was commissioned by the Welsh Government to ascertain the degree to which councils were able to track their recyclables to a final end destination in 2014/15.
The report used WasteDataFlow data submitted by local authorities, as well as interviews held with recycling officers, reprocessors and stakeholders.
Reject losses include any material that is collected for recycling but subsequently sent to landfill or energy recovery, including non-recyclable materials set out for collection as well as materials that could not be adequately separated out and reprocessed.
Losses
Remarkably, the study found that losses associated with the processing of organic and dry recyclables only amounted to 1.3% of the total quantity of recyclables collected for recycling from the kerbside in 2014/15.
Some 40,650 tonnes – or 7.2% – of the total quantity of dry recyclables were reported as reject losses coming out of materials recycling facilities (MRFs) in Wales, and the reject rate for reprocessors amounted to 0.90% of the total quantity collected.
Eunomia concludes that local authorities have succeeded in tracking 90% of all dry recyclables and organics to an actual end destination – with just under half of the total tonnage collected reported to have gone to end destination facilities based in Wales.
But, the consultancy also argued there is a ‘general trend’ among Welsh councils that reject rates are being underreported – with ‘little effort’ being invested in accounting for or tracking losses other than at MRFs.
“The reality is that with continually shifting markets authorities will have to remain committed to gathering the necessary data and pushing contractors to do the same.”
Recycling Destinations Data Review
Data
The report states: “The reality is that with continually shifting markets authorities will have to remain committed to gathering the necessary data and pushing contractors to do the same. There are no doubt some challenges to a obtaining the required information but it is hoped that with the recommendations presented below these may be lessened and the efficiency of the reporting process improved.”
Latest figures provided by the Welsh Government show that collectively the 22 councils are recycling around 57% of waste. However, progress towards meeting its statutory recycling targets has slowed in recent quarters – with concern growing over the councils’ ability to reach 58% by the end of the year (see letsrecycle.com story).
Despite some uncertainty surrounding the contamination rates, Eunomia’s report appears to support the Welsh Government’s commitment to push separate sorting. It claims that ‘the mixing of numerous waste streams’ made it hard to ‘reliably track’ the onward flow of municipal waste – which contributes to poor reject rate reporting.
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