The Recycling Association’s Simon Ellin says contrary to expectations, four months after China enforced its 0.5% contamination restrictions, the UK is not overrun with stockpiled materials. But, make no mistake, we are “mid-crisis”.
It’s four months since China enforced its 0.5% contamination restrictions for paper – and blacklisted all but post-manufacturing recovered plastics. Contrary to expectations, we’re not overrun with stockpiled materials.
But, make no mistake, we are mid-crisis.
Minister for the Environment Therese Coffey’s assertions that emerging markets would pick up the slack haven’t been borne out. But then we never thought they would be.
For plastics, data for January shows the amount of material falling off a cliff, 20,000 tonnes less than the same month last year. The highest tonnage was exported to Malaysia, but even that figure fell by comparison to 2017.
In contrast, there has been a marked increase in news of home-grown reprocessing opportunities. Of course, low material prices make such opportunities look attractive. But we need to find ways to ensure they remain attractive in what is always likely to be a volatile market.
We need to ask whether waste management companies will be prepared (or able) to shoulder the market risk, and if so, for how long? We need to look for new solutions, one of which could be a move back to dual stream.
Another casualty of the China ban has been prices. With trays at £50 and mixed papers at £0, we have to question the sustainability of some collections. There is little doubt that continued low prices will result in model changes.
We need to ask whether waste management companies will be prepared (or able) to shoulder the market risk, and if so, for how long? We need to look for new solutions, one of which could be a move back to dual stream.
This situation is not going to change any time soon. The door to China is open, but only just, and only for selected, high quality materials. All of our information is indicating that absolutely every bale of material received in China is being inspected. And if anything untoward is found – down to the smallest element – it is rejected.
Knowing this, the UK Government has an unprecedented opportunity with its Resource & Waste Plan. If it covers funding, design, infrastructure, material selection, and clarity of communication, it could underpin a far more sustainable future.
One of the areas it must address is communication. There’s nothing like a live TV quiz to focus the mind. That’s how it felt when I was sitting on the BBC Breakfast Red Sofa, first thing Saturday morning, giving a definitive answer on whether exhibit A or exhibit B could be recycled.
The problem was (and still is) that giving a definitive answer is quite often impossible. But it’s what the recycling public want and need.
While some things can be recycled in one area, they’re not in another. And there are other items that technologically can be recycled, but due to collections infrastructure and/or lack of market they are not. We understand this. We’ve worked with it for years. But you can see why those not involved get confused with the resulting mixed messages.
Target Desire
To a degree, this is a problem of our own making. In our (target driven) desire to recycle more and more materials, we’ve ended up with a piecemeal approach. On the face of it, we’ve been meeting the targets. But at what price?
The result is that you can ask one reprocessor whether a greasy pizza box should go in the recycling bin and they’ll say yes. While another will say no. The same goes for window envelopes. And grade 5 plastic packaging. Plastic film… And on and on and on.
Apart from used kitchen roll. On that we’re clear. I think.
So, it’s time for reprocessors to stand together and help local and national government (and the public) by providing a clear, unequivocal list of what we want to collect and reprocess and what is in fact garbage.
Whatever else National Sword has done, it’s brought to a head the fact that successful markets for recovered commodities are based on quality. Recycling is not about the quantity diverted. It’s about the quantity used in new manufacturing.
And the ambiguity that we’ve lived with for so long is killing quality.
So, it’s time for reprocessors to stand together and help local and national government (and the public) by providing a clear, unequivocal list of what we want to collect and reprocess and what is in fact garbage.
That way, the garbage can be redesigned for recycling, while we collect and set the quality on its way to re-manufacture.
To do this, we need to sit together and iron out the ambiguities. We’ll be discussing this, and other quality related matters at our Quality First Conference in London on 17 April, for which there are a handful of places remaining as I type.
