Responding to questions at a seminar on market development at the IWM conference in Torbay, Mr Cocker suggested that WRAP was not particularly happy about the way the money for the a new newsprint machine would be allocated: “Ideally we would not have this approach, it does leave us open to ransom.”
Mr Cocker confirmed that the organisation was taking a “particularly strong approach” in this area and promised early funding for additional newsprint capacity.
But, he did not say whether the money for the scheme would come from the 34 million that WRAP has to spend. This seems increasingly unlikely as any grant would swallow up WRAP’s budget in one gulp. The competition, said Mr Cocker, will be run “on European rules”.
Mr Cocker emphasised the urgent need for this growth in newsprint recycling capacity. “A lot of the people in the audience know that we import about half of our newsprint. The production capacity in the UK is potentially an obstacle to higher recycling. The market itself has so fair failed to come up with the extra investment needed in capacity and we need to see ways of accelerating it, to understand the obstacles.”
The views of the WRAP chairman are seen as reflecting some discomfort within government and WRAP over the fact that construction of a new paper machine to recycle newsprint seems unlikely to happen without some form of subsidy. While subsidies are granted for new projects in the UK, questions also remain over whether a new machine would be in a development area and generally as to whether such projects warrant substantial grants towards projects that are owned by large multi-national companies.
Register for free to comment