New plans to improve the quality of paper, card, metals, plastic and glass recycling were announced in early February by Resources Management minister Lord de Mauley.
The proposals set out in a new code of practice for recycling facilities are intended to improve the quality of recycling collected from homes and businesses, and will also promote a stronger market for recycled materials.
Lord de Mauley launched a consultation asking for local authorities and industry’s views on government proposals to measure the quality of recycled materials being processed at Material Recovery Facilities (MRF).
The Government proposals will require all MRFs over a certain size to measure the quality of the input and outputs. The results from these tests would then be made available, for example to those businesses buying the recycling material as well as to local councils and others who supply the material to the MRFs.
The minister said: “The recycling industry contributes around £3bn to our economy. Having sufficient quantity of recyclable material is of course important for the markets. The quality of that material is equally important but often overlooked. I want that to change. While some MRFs already provide quality material I want to see this happening more consistently across the industry.”
