The last few weeks have been very busy and the next few promise to be busy as well. There’s always lots going on in the waste industry!
I attended the ESA conference at the end of February and sat on the panel discussing the Collection and Packaging Reforms (CPR). It was very interesting to hear the views of different stakeholders representing different areas of the value chain. But it was also nice to hear some positives. Despite the enormous challenges that Local Authorities will be facing over the next few years and months, the CPR should result in greater levels of recycling, which is of course what we all wish to see.
I also attended the Food Waste conference in early March and sat on the panel – once again – discussing the implications of the CPR. Again, the collection of more food waste for recycling rather than for disposal is always a positive thing, however, the challenge is not only around rolling out these services, especially to hard to reach areas, but to get residents to engage with them. Consumers have a different relationship with food waste than they do with dry recycling, and despite food waste collections gathering pace over the past number of years and more and more publicity around it, its still a very difficult service to sell.
Last week, I visited the SWEEP KUUSAKOSKI WEEE recycling plant in Kent, which was a real eye opener. Thank you to all of the staff there that made me and my colleagues very welcome and to Repic for organising the visit. The problem of disposable vapes was discussed, and this is a big issue for the WEEE recycling industry at the moment, however, the levels of materials that they are recycling overall from their plant are very impressive.
All of these discussions and visits are very useful and interesting and I believe we are slowly heading in the right direction to enable better levels of recycling across the whole value chain, but where does the top of the waste hierarchy feature?
I have been involved in the EPR Sprint process with the aim to develop a vision for the next 10 years for EPR, and I asked this exact question.
The circular economy is not a new concept, and there is certainly a drive by the devolved governments to address it, but more needs to be done and governments need to start tackling the more difficult aspects of how we can minimise waste in the first place and not just recycle what is left.
