The Resource Association (RA), a trade association for the reprocessing and recycling industries and their supply chain, has announced that it is to produce a ‘Quality Specifications Chart’ to help councils and others understand what ‘high-quality recycling’ means to a UK reprocessor, in relation to the Waste Management Plan for England.

According to the UK’s transposition of the EU’s revised Waste Framework Directive (WFD), the Waste Regulations, by 2015, every waste collection authority must have in place separate collections for waste paper, metal, plastic and glass when they are necessary to ‘facilitate or improve recovery’ and are ‘technically, environmentally and economically practicable’ (TEEP).

However, the UK government’s Waste Management Plan for England, to which local authorities should have regard, states that ‘in effect’ the Waste Regulations ‘require the separate collection of waste paper, metal, plastic and glass from 2015 onwards wherever separate collection is necessary to get high quality recycling, and practicable’. Despite this, there is little reference to what ‘high-quality recycling’ entails.

According to the Waste & Resources Action Programme’s (WRAP) ‘Waste Regulations Route Map’ and the Welsh Government’s ‘Draft Statutory Guidance on Separate Collection of Waste Paper, Metal, Plastic and Glass’, one way to assess whether a collection method yields recycling that is ‘high quality’, is to consider whether the recyclate can be reprocessed back into a product of similar quality to what it was originally –known as ‘closed loop’ recycling.

Quality Specifications Chart to be published ‘before end of May’

In the hopes of making the definition of ‘high-quality recycling’ clearer still, the RA has announced it will ‘shortly publish comprehensive information from many UK reprocessors in the form of a Quality Specifications Chart, which will guide councils and others through what ‘high-quality recycling’ means to a UK reprocessor’.

Speaking of the chart, Ray Georgeson, Chief Executive of the RA, said: “The Resource Association will be making its own response to the challenge set by Resources Minister Dan Rogerson MP for industry to step up and support councils in relation to their need to interpret TEEP. We will shortly publish comprehensive information from many UK reprocessors in the form of a Quality Specifications Chart, which will guide councils and others through what ‘high-quality recycling’ means to a UK reprocessor. In addition, we will be providing information on the impact (or otherwise) of the mixing of certain combinations of materials on the value of the recyclate offered to the reprocessor.

“Used alongside the ‘Waste Regulations Route Map’ for England and the proposed statutory guidance in Wales, these quality specifications should give councils much clearer information on the impact of collection systems on the ability to use materials in ‘high-quality recycling’ and support their future decision making, especially in the run-up to regulatory implementation on 1st January 2015. We expect to publish this information on our website before the end of May 2014.”

Georgeson added that although the Welsh Government’s draft statutory guidance (and the associated formal consultation with stakeholders) had been a “long time in gestation”, it was “very welcome to see the Welsh Government providing leadership to local government in Wales and the wider recycling and resource management sectors”.

He concluded: “In that regard, we also welcome the work commissioned from Eunomia for the Waste Network Chairs, LWARB and WRAP on the ‘Waste Regulations Route Map’ and commend this work to local councils in England. If this route map is followed thoroughly by local councils, it should be of value in ensuring their decision-making processes are robust. Taking good advice and being thorough will be the key, but this work should be welcomed by councils in the absence of statutory guidance from Defra.”

Read more about the Resource Association or read WRAP or the Welsh Government’s collection documents.