The Robert Long Consultancy has started research work into the types and quantities of commercial packaging waste which are not recycled. The research follows Valpak's move into the commercial waste stream and its recycle-more-glass service, a free glass collection campaign which collects glass from more than 2,000 licensed premises in the UK.
Valpak believes that there is potential to extract more packaging waste from the commercial and industrial waste streams. The research will look mainly at paper and plastic and will establish how viable it is to recycle these items.
Valpak hopes that the research will enable it to obtain sufficient information so it can start new campaigns which will put it in a better position to meet the 2006 packaging targets. John Gummer, Valpak chairman's, has gone on record as saying: “We can not afford to wait until the outcome for the consultations has been confirmed. We must act now to ensure that we are in a strong position to meet our members' obligations as we go into 2002 and beyond.”
Extraction costs
Emma Stewart, of Valpak, told letsrecycle.com: “The objective of the study is to quantify and locate the additional tonnage of packaging waste available in the commercial and industrial waste streams and to project the costs for extracting it.”
The research will be in two parts with the first stage assessing the few existing studies into industrial waste streams. Robert Walker at the consultants said that he was surprised that there did not seem to be much work carried out in the field. Mr Walker said: “We have carried out a literature review but there doesn't seem to be an awful lot that has been done. We are sure there is some data out there, but it is providing quite difficult to find.”
Robert Long Consultancy is now looking for existing data from analyses of waste at commercial and industrial premises, transfer stations and landfills.
The second part of the research will look at the compositional analysis of the industrial waste stream. Robert Long has already started work on this and set up waste analysis studies at various waste transfer stations across the country. The consultants will report back to Valpak by Christmas with data on the types and quantities of commercial packaging waste which are not being recycled. Follow-up work is likely to be carried out in the New Year.
For further information contact
Robert Walker.
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