Waste management company Veolia is advocating a twin-stream approach for dry recyclables to ensure that recycling is made ‘easy’ for householders when requirements for local authorities to separate paper, metal, plastic and paper come into effect next year.

According to the UK’s transposition of the EU’s revised Waste Framework Directive (the Waste Regulations (Amendment) 2012), 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, former Resources Minister, Lord De Mauley, wrote to local authorities last year stating that although the government ‘fully supported’ separate collection of waste paper, plastic, glass and metal – and indicating that separate collections of recyclables should be the default position for councils to adopt – he was ‘aware that co-mingled metal and plastic are relatively easy to separate at a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF)’.

He added: ‘However, at present many of our existing MRFs struggle to keep glass shards out of the paper stream. In addition many MRFs produce low quality mixed glass, which needs further sorting and can be uneconomic to re-smelt. I look to local authorities actively to address these problems, by the effective implementation of the new regulations and by tackling problems with operating practices.’

‘No more unnecessary bins’

Ahead of the law coming into effect, Veolia – which operates some of the UK’s largest MRFs – is calling for authorities and reprocessors to adopt a ‘pragmatic approach’ to the regulations, and is advocating a ‘no more unnecessary bins’ policy.

Specfically, it advised that to ‘keep it simple’, waste should be separated into four bins: ‘glass, organic waste, other recyclable waste, and black bag waste’.

Richard Kirkman, Veolia’s Technical Director, explained: “Veolia is as committed to recycling as the EU, it’s our business, but we want to ensure the new EU laws are viable for the public and practical for residents. Some reprocessors are trying to put measures in place that could cause a rise of up to 19 bins on UK doorsteps!

“With modern technology, paper, metal and plastic can all be separated post-collection to the required standard. The public are very supportive of recycling, but we must make it easy for them.”

Some councils, such as those covered by the Somerset Waste Partnership, operate a middle ground between the two systems (multiple bins vs co-mingled collections), by co-collecting dry recyclables that are then sorted at the kerbside by operatives. It is thought that this system provides householders with ‘easy’ recycling whilst also adhering to the separation requirements.

Indeed, Andy Moore, Managing Director of material quality campaigning company UK Recyclate Ltd, told Resource: "No reprocessors I know are making plans which require multiple bins. Should Kirkman take a trip to Somerset or to Newport in Wales, he would see that several different dry materials can be collected from one crate and sorted onto a compartmented vehicle. That’s street-legal with the Waste Regulations, with no MRF needed. If there is a second crate, it’s because diversion is going well. With the food waste caddy and the residual wheelie that makes four. What are the other 15 for?

"I suggest they are simply Mr Kirkman’s men of straw. He set them up to knock them down. Of course people don’t want more bins. The Daily Mail had fun turning these imaginary ones into a Euro-bash, but there’s no real story here, so move on, folks."

YouGov survey shows support for recycling

As well as the collection announcement, Veolia also highlighted results from a new YouGov survey that reportedly showed that of the 2,500 adults asked, 94 per cent said recycling was important, and 92 per cent said they separated out their recyclable waste.

Although 35 per cent of the respondents not currently separating out glass for collection said they were willing to do so (60 per cent stated that they already did it), 69 per cent of all those surveyed said they did not think that householders should be expected to separate their rubbish into more than four bins (with 12 per cent saying that they thought six or more bins was ‘reasonable’.)

Read more about how local authorities are looking to meet the separate collection requirements.