Industry backs waste recovery solutions against incinerators

In a detailed analysis of waste management options in the UK, Biffa Waste

Services proposes an alternative to the national waste strategy. According

to the waste management company in its new report, A Question of Balance,

the country should rely on waste recovery, not large-scale incineration.

The report says that businesses should not be burdened with waste taxes and

recycling targets without similar obligations being applied to domestic

waste. Currently, the UK recycles only 8% of the 27 million tonnes of

household waste produced every year, recycling only a quarter a much as

other European countries. By contrast, Biffa cites commercial recycling as a

growing success story.

The waste management company also urges the Government to consider an

emphasis on waste minimisation and recovery backed by limited landfill,

energy from waste plants and recycling, along with greatly improved data

management.

Call for major change

“There must be a major change in our approach to waste and how we deal with

it if we are meet to meet the directives set by Europe,” says the author of

the report, Peter Jones, Biffa’s Development Director. “We must encourage

more re-use of materials and such initiatives must be lead by a co-ordinated

Government policy aimed at both business and households.”

Mr Jones continued: “Currently there is an inadequate emphasis on supply

chain reform, producer responsibility and product design to help waste

recovery. There is also a failure to tackle consumer behaviour which should

require households to participate in recycling schemes.”

He added: “We welcome Government commitment to sustainable waste management

and urge action to make manufacturers responsible for product disposal. This

should be backed by offering tax breaks to help fund retrieval and recycling

costs, thus making recycled materials competitive with virgin products. We

see absolutely no reason why Landfill Tax and other eco-tax revenue could

not be used to pay for greener product designs and manufacturing processes.”

Dealing with the key question of markets for recycled materials, the report

says that UK markets for recycled materials remain very sluggish and small,

mainly because of the discouragingly high costs and risks which reprocessors

face. If we are to meet our national recycling targets, such markets will

have to be developed substantially, the company considers.

The report says: “Taxing businesses and forcing them to recycle more of

their product materials will help. But this alone will not make recycled

products mainstream. The public at large will only buy them if they are high

quality, attractive and good value, as well as ethically desirable.”

The full report can be downloaded from the Biffa website at www.biffa.co.uk

Recycling used newspapers

Another new report, produced by independent consultants for the British

Newsprint Manufacturers’ Association (BNMA), gives the results of a study of

the environmental, social and economic effects of recycling and incinerating

used newspapers in the UK and to determine their ranking for prioritisation.

One case examines placing recycling into the UK newsprint production chain

(“UK Newsprint”). The alternative case examines incinerating recycled

newspapers to produce energy (“UK Energy”).

Dealing with the implications for local and national policy makers, the

study has demonstrated that “UK Newsprint” has an overall advantage over the

“UK Energy” option, in terms of both the environmental and national economic

effects arising from the recovery of used newspapers. This advantage grows

when Best Available Technology (BAT) is used in newsprint production.

In the local authority collecting for recycling sector, the report says that

the relative advantages of “UK Newsprint” are set to grow as the collection

of used newspapers and magazines increases along with the growth in demand.

They are already a large part of the domestic waste stream. Local councils

will face rising total gate fees if they send this material to incineration

plants. It makes sense to recycle and save on gate fees. The Audit

Commission urges councils to take such gains into account when debating

recycling initiatives.

Commenting on moves to impose a mandatory recycled content for newsprint,

the study points out that the average recycled content of newsprint

manufactured in the UK is already 92% – approaching the limit of current

capacity.

The report says that it follows from this that

there are only two routes to increase further the recycled content. These

are: improving local recycling infrastructure in order to recover some of

the huge quantities of used newspapers and other paper products (a grand

total of five million tonnes a year) that currently go to landfill; and

encouraging more investment in domestic paper production to recycle this

mountain of used paper.