The government-funded recycling market development organisation held an open meeting for stakeholders in London yesterday, releasing its latest annual Achievements Report, for the period 2003-04.
In its three years of operation up until March this year, WRAP said it has delivered 3.7 million tonnes of new recycling capacity, of which 1.7 million tonnes is completed and operational or under construction, with a “best assessment” of a further 2 million tonnes in delivery. Chairman Vic Cocker said this was compared to a target of 2.4 million tonnes extra capacity as laid out by WRAP's original business plan.
” The WRAP Board is aware of the need to make rapid progress given the imminence of the targets for reduction of landfill volumes and for the recycling of municipal waste.“
– Vic Cocker, WRAP chairman
Commenting on the report, the organisation said it was “satisfied”, and said it had exceeded expectations in a number of areas. Of the seven targets not achieved, it said four had been “partially” achieved. It said the three targets that had not been achieved would be “prioritised” as part of its second Business Plan, which covers the period up to 2006.
Mr Cocker said: “The (WRAP) Board is keenly aware that it has responsibility for the effective and efficient deployment of significant sums of public expenditure. It has also been aware of the need to make rapid progress given the imminence of the targets for reduction of landfill volumes and for the recycling of municipal waste.”
WRAP said its achievements this year also included research and development work that is likely to lead to 20,000 tonnes of additional mixed plastics reprocessing at JFC Delleve. And, WRAP said it had brought in 122.9 million of additional investment in reprocessing capacity at UPM Shotton. The organisation also highlighted its “nationally recognised” composting standards.
“This report shows that our work has led to a tangible increase in recycling infrastructure and material value across all our key material streams,” said WRAP chief executive Jennie Price.
The organisation's achieved targets also included 35% recycling of municipal glass waste; commitment from at least half of all local authorities to adopt a “buy recycled” policy; and the doubling of wood packaging recovery to 350,000 tonnes a year.
The organisation admitted however that it had difficulty finding suitable projects to spend its money on. “This year we're spending more than we did in the first two years put together and next year we will be allocating 75 million, but it is difficult to find suitable projects to spend on,” said Hugh Etheridge, director of finance at WRAP.
Partial achievements
Partial achievements came in the wood sector, with a failure to achieve the desired 40% recycling and re-use of construction and demolition wood waste a year – an estimated additional tonnes to reach 480,000 tonnes.
Mrs Price said that half of the target had been achieved but that there was “a lot of wood treated with old or complex chemicals and we sometimes don't know what contaminants there are.”
WRAP only partially achieved its target to support investment to create manufacturing capacity to deliver a 500,000 tonnes a year increase in newspaper recycling. It only partially achieved a target to secure 350,000 tonnes extra of glass from all sources, including 100,000 tonnes from commercial sources, for recycling. And, it only partially reached the target to divert 200,000 tonnes of green or mixed glass for use as recycled aggregates.
Mrs Price admitted that WRAP had been wrong with some of its forecasts but said that plans do not always run as expected. In one area, WRAP had forecast that 200,000 tonnes of glass would be used in aggregates and that 100,000 tonnes would find new uses. But the organisation was surprised to find only 69,000 tonnes was used in aggregates, while 607,000 tonnes was used in new uses.
Missed targets
Two of WRAP's three missed targets were in the paper sector. Firstly it did not succeeded in increasing the use of recovered paper in graphics, printings and writings sector by 180,000 tonnes a year. And secondly, it failed to benchmark use of recycled papers in this sector and achieve 100% increase in market share, as it had aimed to do.
The third failing came after the promise to produce a certain amount of recycled materials to be used in three named industry sectors. Mrs Price said this had been delayed because of the over-running of other projects. She also said that there were not enough 'e;xemplar modules' to use in encouraging businesses to follow suit and use more recycled products.
For a full copy of the WRAP Achievements Report 2003/04, see the WRAP website.
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