Following Friday’s (1 February) launch of the government’s consultation on a Code of Practice for Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs), reaction from trade bodies has been mixed.

Although the proposed legislation ­– part of the Environment Permitting regulations to be laid before Parliament in 2013 – has been generally well received, some trade associations have expressed doubts that the proposals can ‘promote high recycling’.

Open to abuse

Speaking on behalf of the Resource Association, a trade body for the reprocessing and recycling industries and their supply chain, Chief Executive Ray Georgeson said: “We welcome the long awaited launch…of this important consultation and the focus on improving recyclate quality outlined in the government’s Quality Action Plan. Placing the regulation of recyclate quality at MRFs onto a statutory footing is a welcome step and we applaud it as a potential step forward for recyclate quality.

“However, we remain unconvinced that the proposals for material sampling, auditing and inspection are sufficiently intense and robust to deliver the government’s stated objective (in para 2.8 p8 of the consultation) of ensuring that co-mingled collection of dry recyclates followed by sorting at the MRF can deliver the requirements of the rWFD [revised Waste Framework Directive] and promote high quality recycling.”

Adding that the association acknowledges that ‘some MRFs do produce high-quality recyclates’, Georgeson referenced the association’s recent report that found that poor quality recyclate from MRFs costs the UK £51 million a year. He also voiced concern over the robustness of the proposals and their adequacy to ‘deliver the robust regulatory regime the government needs to meet the requirements of the rWFD’.

“We believe the proposed regime will be easily circumvented by rogue operators and the lack of unannounced inspection leaves the regime open to abuse. This fundamentally affects the credibility of the proposals in the context of the stated objective… and we call on Defra and ESA to consider again how to strengthen the regime without placing disproportionate burden on business (as the consultation states).

“During the consultation, we will continue to state these concerns to government and the MRF operators, and we hope that the major MRF operators will consider alternative proposals that we believe will act in the long-term interests of UK recycling and deliver the confidence in the recyclate supply chain that everyone – local authorities, MRF operators and reprocessors alike – all need to deliver a first class quality recycling industry”, he added.

Government’s deregulatory priorities ‘not appropriate in every situation’

The transition from a voluntary to a mandatory approach to monitoring materials in MRFs handling more than 1,000 tonnes a year has been welcomed by the Environmental Services Association (ESA), a trade association that represents around half of UK MRF operators and helped develop the code.

Acknowledging that there would be ‘much discussion over the detail in the proposals’, Matthew Farrow, Director of Policy at the ESA, said that he was ‘confident’ the code will ‘ensure that the MRF market is transparent and efficient’.

He said: “I am delighted that ministers have listened to the ESA and are proposing a system of mandatory sampling and auditing of material coming into and being produced by MRFs. It is also good news that the proposed Code of Practice has been modelled on the original version produced by the ESA.

“MRFs are a vital part of the recycling supply chain and there are many excellent ones which consistently produce high-quality material which meets their customers’ needs. However, not all MRFs are up to scratch and that is why we have consistently lobbied Defra to make the code a compulsory, rather than a voluntary, scheme for all MRFs. In proposing just such an approach, ministers have wisely shown that the deregulatory priorities of the government are not appropriate in every situation and that this is a sector where proportionate regulation can boost investment and green growth.

“There will, no doubt, be much discussion over the detail in the proposals, such as the specific sampling and auditing requirements, and the ESA will contribute constructively to the debate on this. But overall we are confident that the code will ensure that the MRF market is transparent and efficient, and ensures that MRFs are producing material which meets the needs of all their customers.”

Chris Dow, CEO of plastic recycler Closed Loop Recycling also welcomed the mandatory code, saying that the consultation marked government’s ‘first major step towards realising its plans to become the greenest government ever’.

“We at Closed Loop Recycling agree with the ESA and other industry leaders that all aspects of the scheme must be mandatory and enforced via the Environmental Permit regime. It is absurd to believe that the illegal exporters would join the scheme if voluntary.”

However, Dow echoed the Resource Association’s concerns over the lack of independent audits and sampling, warning that with no unannounced inspections, illegal exporters could create ‘false but seemingly compliant sampling documentation’.

“We…believe that independent audits should be unannounced and should include physical sampling by the independent auditor. Without this check, illegal exporters would be able to create false but seemingly compliant sampling documentation. The audit might also include a holistic view of ISO systems documentation and customer feedback regarding quality.

“With a mandatory MRF Code of Practice, greater enforcement of the Trans-Frontier Ships Regulations and a review of the PRN/PERN system, UK re-processors will feel confident to invest in additional capacity which will lead to the creation of substantial numbers of green jobs and will reduce the UK's imports of virgin raw materials.”

‘Improving the quality of recycling’

The quality of materials obtained from co-mingled collections and reprocessed at MRFs has been hotly debated recently and is currently the subject of a Judicial Review into the UK’s transposition of the revised Waste Framework Directive, set to be heard in High Court on 26-28 February 2013.

Fay Dashper, Recycling Operations Manager at the industry body for beverage cartons, the Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment (ACE UK) welcomed the Code of Practice for its possibility of increasing recyclate quality from co-mingled collections.

She said: “Improving the quality of recycling in the UK is critical to the future success of the waste management and reprocessing industries, as all parties in the value chain strive for greater resource efficiency – whether on environmental, financial or legal grounds.”

Read the Materials Recovery Facility Code of Practice and Quality Action Programme.