Recycling News
MRW - Chris White's Opinion piece
March 2008
In 2005/6 the Waste Resources and Action Programme was given almost £80m in grants to carry out its work. Last year this was cut to £67.7m and this year the budget has been reduced by another 30% bringing its provision to just £43.2m – almost half of what it was just two years ago.
Has UK recycling and waste management moved on at such a pace that we can afford to slash WRAP’s budget so significantly? I think not. Although much of the country is moving forward when it comes to diversion targets, and end markets like plastics are starting to take off, there is still an enormous amount of work to be done – and more importantly to be overseen.
One of the very real problems with the UK’s waste management and recycling sector is the conflicting interests of the stakeholders involved. For years we’ve been talking about a “joined up approach”, but from where I’m standing there’s been lots of talk and little action. When it comes to creating strategies and developing practical solutions, the huge number of opinions, interests and authorities involved have made being “joined up” somewhere in between difficult and impossible. One of WRAP’s many roles has been to chart a course through all of these opinions and find a way forward.
I don’t think we’ve got there yet. In terms of paper, the last few months have seen some interesting developments. Quality is now on the agenda and it feels like we are beginning to make progress. I’m worried that the budget cuts will herald a reduction in WRAP’s ability to steer a course through all of the differing stakeholder interests, bringing our industry’s progress to a premature end. My fears were confirmed almost immediately on hearing that WRAP’s paper representative has been one of the posts lost as a result.
I am left to wonder that if we miss the Landfill Directive targets and incur fines from the EC whether the Government has made their natural target much more difficult to hit.
Another point of interest last week was CIWM’s “Real Recycling – Quality Counts” conference held in London. It’s definitely a sign of the times (and of a growth in understanding) that CIWM chose to devote a conference to the issue of quality. And, while it’s great that this is on the agenda, I find it difficult to understand the thinking of some of the delegates. In particular, in relation to what real recycling is.
Real recycling is surely the collection of a used material from its user (whether commercial or household) and presenting it so that it can be manufactured into another useful product (anywhere in the world) for someone to use again. Not rocket science I suggest, but it is here that we have a problem! Too many people still believe that collection in itself is recycling and that the presentation of plastic bottles and cans mixed with paper to make newsprint or plastic mixed with cans to make aluminium is acceptable as long as they are allowed to call it recycling and there is somewhere in the world that will accept it. That of course is not real recycling but it is easy and convenient and as long as they can claim the tonnage as recycled, who cares!
Perhaps some clues can be found in MRW’s own State of the Nation report. A truly interesting insight into the actions and the decision making process of local authority recycling departments, reports such as this go a long way to ensuring that we do all continue to try to understand each other’s raison d’être. So now we’ve come full circle back to joined up thinking – that’s what I call a closed loop opinion!
The latest edition of Newsround is here!
Featuring Aylesbury Vale District Council Recycled Clothes Show, the Cylch Annual Conference, Great Ormond Street Hospital gala ball and a spotlight on Richard Bower MBE. Download it here:
Fred Rolleston
Aylesford Newsprint is sad to note that Fred Rolleston, a much admired partner of the company, has passed away.
Fred, of St Mary’s Bay, Kent, worked with Aylesford Newsprint for more than 10 years, organising a paper recycling collection which raised nearly £250,000 for diabetes sufferers in Kent. Fred was awarded an MBE in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours for his work.
Fred, a retired drapery shop owner, was diagnosed with diabetes some years ago; he organised the paper collection as a thank you for the people who helped him.
Andrew Perkins and his team at Aylesford Newsprint worked closely with Fred. “Fred was easy to admire and hard to say no to, he was able to charm from us every bit of time and resource we could put his way and more. Our thoughts are with his wife, and family. He will be sadly missed.”