In an effort to improve UK gypsum recycling rates, reprocessors of gypsum in the UK and Ireland have come together to form one ‘cohesive’ group known as The Gypsum Re-processors Association UK & Ireland (GRAUKI).
GRAUKI is a trade body set up by five founder members from the industry and intends to ‘speak with a single voice’ regarding issues that ‘directly affect the successful and sustainable operation of the gypsum recycling industry’.
Current members of GRAUKI are New West Gypsum Recycling (UK) Ltd, Roy Hatfield Ltd, Countrystyle Recycling, 2G Environmental, BRL Ltd-Ireland, Arrow Gypsum, 4 Recycling Ltd.
The body aims to promote ‘the responsible treatment of gypsum waste’ by influencing future legislation and ‘seeking out alternative solutions for gypsum waste’ in an attempt to ‘capture greater volumes of otherwise wasted gypsum’, ‘preserve raw materials’ and ‘discourage irresponsible disposal by rogue traders’.
GRAUKI believes that its formation will allow for more ‘effective lobbying and promotion of the industry as a whole’, with previous interaction with the Environment Agency (EA), Defra and WRAP having been undertaken by individual gypsum reprocessors.
Speaking to Resource, GRAUKI Chairman, Bob Curd, highlighted that the association’s grievance isn’t with specific regulatory bodies (such as the EA), but instead with “restrictions placed on reprocessed gypsum due to the limited and prescriptive end uses listed in the Quality Protocol”.
Though gypsum products, such as plasterboard, are 100 per cent recyclable, the Quality Protocol, drafted by WRAP and the EA currently lists only three uses for reprocessed gypsum. It can be manufactured back into plasterboard and coving, used as a ‘soil treatment agent for agricultural benefit’ or employed in the ‘manufacture of cement.’
Curd said: “Our aim in this regard is to achieve "product" status for the gypsum once it has been reprocessed to a level of quality as laid down in the Protocol; this would remove those restrictions and allow the industry to operate on a level playing field with virgin mined gypsum and DSG.
“The result would be that more waste gypsum could be recovered, there would be less reliance on natural resources and there would be significantly less perfectly usable material being disposed of in landfill.”
Read more about GRAUKI.
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