Rogerson branded weak over TEEP

Speaking to letsrecycle.com following the news that Defra had abandoned statutory guidance over when commingling can legally be permitted, Andy Moore who led the Campaign For Real Recycling said that it was in the interest of all sides for guidance to be published.

He also labelled correspondence from resource minister Dan Rogerson over the issue as weak and said that further clarity is also needed on what constitutes high quality recycling as well as the unanswered questions over TEEP.

A legal challenge lodged by CRR over Defra and the Welsh Governments transposition of the revised EU Waste Framework Directive in particular whether commingled collections are permissable was ultimately unsuccessful after it was found that officials had correctly interpreted the law.

Under the Directive, authorities are required to carry out separate collections of paper, card, plastic, glass and metal, unless it is not technically, environmentally and economically practicable (TEEP) for them to do so.

Clarity

The conclusion of the case led to calls for greater clarity over what legally constitutes TEEP, to ensure that councils are safe from the prospect of being challenged in court if the law is wrongly applied.

Defra had begun work on a guidance document, which was expected to be published next month (February 2014), only for waste official Colin Church to state on Friday that the department no longer plans to issue any guidance (see letsrecycle.com story).

Mr Moore said that local authorities seeking further reassurance on TEEP can now only refer to the letter sent by the former resource minister Lord de Mauley in October, which offers some clarity over the impact of the regulations, but does not constitute statutory guidance.

He added that without formal guidance from Defra, any future legal challenge could hinge on further interpretation of the original wording of the Waste Framework Directive, which formed a large part of the discussion during the original Judicial Review hearings (see letsrecycle.com story).

He said: We are left with Lord de Mauleys swansong letter which was helpful, but it was not guidance. If something goes to court not that we are actively pursuing that we would be going back to the European Commissions guidance again which is not really satisfactory.

The letter from Lord de Mauley also raises the possibility that there might be legal challenges, we might be involved in that but it is difficult to say at the moment.

Weak

Mr Moore, who runs the firm UK Recyclate Ltd, added that he had received correspondence from the newly appointed resource minister Dan Rogerson last year which suggested that Defra was backing out of publishing guidance based on a mixed response from different local authorities.

I was going to meet Mr Rogerson last year, but that did not happen. Instead I had a letter from him in which he said that some local authorities wanted guidance, and some did not. We felt that guidance was more needed than not and when I saw the letter I thought it was a bit weak.

I have always thought that guidance was needed and that it is in the interest of all sides for that they [Defra] should have done that.

Quality

Meanwhile, he also added that clarity over what Defra considers to be high quality recyclate would be equally as important as guidance on the provisions of TEEP.

The full wording of the regulations states that commingled collections can only be permitted where they are TEEP and where they promote high quality recycling and meet the necessary quality standards of the relevant recycling sectors.

Mr Moore added that further clarity over quality standards could be equally as important as TEEP guidance in ensuring that the regulations are being applied correctly.

He said: More clarity is needed on what is considered to be quality recyclate, that is at least as important as what TEEP means. If Colin Churchs tweet only mentions TEEP, perhaps that is something they might do.