Speaking at the Community Recycling Network conference in Bristol, she said there is no point in creating demand without reprocessing capacity and added that the community sector has a strong role in raising the profile of recycling. She called for the the sector “to take risks and push both debate and practice forward”.
Mrs Price's comments won support from Manda Brookman, vice chair of CRN who said that WRAP is “the biggest hope on the horizon for the community sector”.
Mrs Price spoke of the substantial funds available for research and development and said that WRAP is initiating a business advisory service whose role is to “help organisations get capital grants. She said WRAP wanted to increase access to the capital to bring new technologies to the market and then “to plug the gap between blue skies research and technology on the ground.”
She added: “It is vital that organisations take up these opportunities to help WRAP achieve its targets which are to create stable and efficient markets for these products.”
But, she sounded a note of caution with regards to standards for recycled material. This is seen as one of the more contentious areas for WRAP and in an attempt to increase market confidence WRAP is working hard on standards for recyclable materials and compost.
“Setting standards is a commercial bear pit – we need to make sure there is a strong advocacy for recycled products so that non-one ignores them. And this is especially so in relation to composting in which you need reliable quality, otherwise it could destroy the market forever,” Mrs Price warned.
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