Pressure on local authorities to recycle more to avoid exceeding their landfill allowance is creating the risk of a ‘quantity not quality’ approach to processing waste, which could see recycled material such as paper, glass and plastics in no state to be reused commercially, and ending up back in landfill according to ICE.
In its State of the Nation: Waste and Resource Management 2011 report, ICE calls for a waste sector ‘evolution’, costing at least £10-20bn by 2020. This would see policy makers and the waste industry make a rapid shift towards a culture where the focus is not only on increasing the quantity of recycled materials but on retaining the quality and value of reusable materials as they move through the waste cycle, so they can be returned to and benefit the economy as first rate, saleable goods.
ICE says the progression to a ‘circular economy’ - where recovered and recycled materials are high enough quality to be routinely bought back into use, reducing the demand for goods made from raw materials - could see the waste industry be part of a resource efficiency drive that could contribute 10% to CO2 reduction. Most recycled materials have a lower CO2 footprint than raw materials which are extracted from the ground or grown and then go through a more carbon intensive process to become finished goods. 50% less energy is required to recycle paper compared with making it from raw materials.
ICE waste and resource management expert Jonathan Davies, of SKM Enviros, said: “The UK’s waste management policy has been too narrowly focused on diverting waste from landfill and local authorities are stepping up to the challenge to avoid fines by increasing the quantity of recycled material.
"But we still need more action also to drive up the quality of the material being produced. Without this, the UK could generate increasingly poor quality recycled materials for which there are few buyers, and ironically their most likely final destination is landfill."
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