The judgement in the commingling case which could influence the future of the collection of recyclable materials from households in England and Wales was given this morning by Justice Hickinbottom at Birmingham Civil Justice Centre.
The judge broadly found in favour of Defra and the Welsh Government who are to scrutinise the judgement before commenting further. Similarly, the Campaign for Real Recycling (CRR) is also reviewing the judgement.
CRR considers that material collected commingled is often not of sufficient quality for reprocessors to use. CRR members pursuing the case against the government include Ardagh Glass, DS Smith Paper Ltd, Novelis UK, Palm Recycling, Smurfit Kappa and UK Recyclate Ltd.
In setting out their argument last month the claimants’ said that the ‘legal heart’ of the case was the differing interpretation of the Directive, while the ‘practical heart’ was the desire of waste management companies to ‘preserve a regime’ where materials are collected together at the kerbside and separated at materials recycling facilities (MRFs) to the financial gain of the waste management firms.
The judge was also told by the claimants that materials collected through a ‘kerbside sort’ system rarely exceeded 0.5% whereas commingled collections produce a reject-rate of around 10%.
Reacting to the judgement LARAC Chair Joy Blizzard said "Some LARAC members will be relieved at this news and that the uncertainty is over.
I welcome the recognition of the importance of local solutions to local issues, however high quality recycling services are a current and increasing issue for councils, reprocessors and the public. Work needs to be done to increase quality to ensure suitable markets for our materials. At a time when finances are tight councils need to ensure that they get the best value out of what they collect, sort and sell.”
However, this is not expected to be the end of the matter as quality concerns remain and the claimants are likely to consider an appeal.
