The Northern Ireland economy could secure £150 million per year if councils adopted recycling services that generated high quality materials for the recycling industry, claims a report published by five recycling companies.
Eric Randall, Director of Bryson Recycling pictured with the Wheelie Box , which could secure a further £150m every year for the local economy and help increase high quality recycling across Northern Ireland
The study was conducted by The Collaborative Circular Economy Network, funded by Invest NI and led by social enterprise Bryson Recycling and four Northern Irish reprocessors – Cherry Plastics, Encirc, Huhtamaki (Lurgan) and AgriAD.
The network found that already “over £100 million worth of economic value per year is generated in Northern Ireland from manufacturing new products from paper, plastics and glass” and there is a potential extra £50 million to be made.
Standards
Much of what is collected is not up to the quality standards required by the reprocessors, says the report, and is being exported to lower value markets outside Northern Ireland – “meaning that some of the value inherent in the recyclate is lost to the Northern Ireland economy”.
The study endorses kerbside collection, claiming that “co-mingled collection systems result in unacceptable levels of contamination, whereas recyclate that has been collected separately through kerb-side sort, separate ‘bring’ sites and Community Recycling Centre’s meets their quality specification”.
In particular, the report highlighted “Wheelie Boxes” as a way of collecting high quality materials. The boxes are three boxes on an integrated trolley system, designed by one of the contributors of the report, Bryson Recycling, together with Leeds-based manufacturer Straight PLC.
Scale
Commenting in wake of the study, Eric Randall, director of Bryson Recycling, said: “Our rubbish is a resource and we should put it to good economic use. This means jobs and economic activity on a much bigger scale than most people realise”.
Niall Casey, Invest NI’s Director of Skills & Competitiveness, said: “This collaboration has enabled businesses to work together to scope out how to maximise recycling services to benefit the circular economy. The initiative has also given the participating manufacturing businesses the platform to explore potential commercial opportunities from re-using recyclable products.”
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Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
