Mr Griffiths, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Trade and Industry, said the co-mingling of paper with metals, glass or other materials makes it much more difficult for the paper industry to make quality recycled products.
”I am alarmed at the trend towards mixing paper for recycling with other materials that contaminate the paper.“
– Trade minister Nigel Griffiths
Speaking in Westminster late last week, he said: “I am alarmed at the trend towards mixing paper for recycling with metals, glass or other materials that contaminate the paper. I am pressing for this trend to be reversed. Co-mingling makes it much more difficult to recover quality paper products.”
Mr Griffiths said he realised that separate collections of paper would mean councils needing more vehicles for collections, but “I am sure that there are solutions that are cost-effective, good for the environment and good for the industry.”
The minister's comments came in a debate brought by the Labour MP for Chatham and Aylesford, Jonathan Shaw. Mr Shaw, whose constituency has the largest concentration of paper and board manufacturing in the UK, had warned the minister that the number of councils in England that offer a dedicated paper and card collection dropped from 117 in 2001-02 to 55 in 2002-03.
”We must separate materials at the doorstep. It makes no sense to separate them after collection.“
– Jonathan Shaw MP
Mr Shaw said: “Local authorities are driven by considerations of weight rather than of quality. Therefore, a reduction in quality inevitably happens. The quality of the raw material is vital for the paper industry to produce the quality product that consumers want.”
He said that if recovered paper comes into contact with grease, food or glass, it is contaminated and cannot be used.
“If we are to take the next step in recycling, we must separate materials at the doorstep. It makes no sense to separate them after collection, particularly when one of the key materials is redundant,” Mr Shaw insisted.
Subscribe for free