View - The Municipality of Lambton Shores

Low Standards Costly for Some Recyclers
The Resource Association has released a report highlighting the cost burden on UK
reprocessors and manufacturers resulting from poor and inconsistent quality of recyclate
The findings of the Costs of Contamination Report 2012 show that poor and inconsistent
quality recyclate is a significant financial burden for British industry, according to the
Resource Association.
It also identifies a conservative estimate of over £51m a year of costs associated with the
management of poor and inconsistent quality recyclate, representing an average of £15.67
per tonne for over 3m tonnes of reprocessing capacity featured in the survey.
The report surveyed all of the Resource Association's reprocessor members and all nine
reprocessors participated in the research. The capacity surveyed for this research
represents around half of all the UK reprocessing capacity that exists for paper and card,
plastics, aluminium and glass.
Chairman of the Resource Association Andy Doran commented: "This report clearly
shows the extent to which poor and inconsistent quality of recyclate adds real cost for the
UK manufacturing base. This represents a missed opportunity for the UK - it is a cost
burden that hampers investment and costs jobs, all to the detriment of the UK green
economy."
Chief executive Ray Georgeson added: "The drive for quantity has come in part at the
expense of quality, and what might be seen as the delivery of cost savings at the
collection end of recycling appears simply to be shifting costs into the manufacturing end
of recycling. We question how long must the UK reprocessing sector carry this burden."
In the report, the Association restated its calls for:
• a fresh look at the whole municipal recycling supply chain, including action to
better regulate the output of MRFs
• this must include a mandatory MRF Code of Practice that demonstrably improves
the quality of UK MRF output through a robust system of monitoring, material
sampling and unannounced inspections
• further robust action by regulators to enforce TFS Regulations and ensure that all
recyclate exported meets legal quality requirements - doing this would
undoubtedly lead to quality improvements in the recyclate also destined for UK
reprocessors
• more research by Government and its agencies to understand better the
relationship between collection systems, public behaviour and contamination of
recyclate - with the purpose of improving communications and operational
practice to deliver better quality.
The findings of the report will be submitted to the various Governments in the UK as part
of the on-going policy discussion about delivering high quality recycling.
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