The chief executive of Suez Recycling and Recovery UK has said that the industry faces an “exciting future”, despite the UK potentially taking a “5% hit” on its recycling rate next year due to the European definition change.
The comments came from David Palmer-Jones at the 30th Anniversary of the North East Recycling Forum (NERF), held in Durham on 19 November.
As reported by letsrecycle.com last month, the European Commission has ratified a definition change of recycling to move it “further down the line” to when recycling enters the recycling operation, rather than when it is ‘sent for recycling’, as is the case currently in many EU member states as well as the UK (see letsrecycle.com story).
David Palmer-Jones was speaking at the North East Recycling Forum’s conference in Durham
Policy
However, Mr Palmer-Jones explained that when looking at what the next 30 years holds for the industry, while the definition change will have a more immediate affect than other factors, such as Brexit and the Resources and Waste Strategy, there is still a lot to be excited about.
He said: “In the last two years there has been a positive impact through policy, and we saw with Michael Gove that he really drove civil servants in a way we have not seen for a decade. Adding in a bit around China, and also Brexit, it has meant we had a superb alignment of planets, and on 18 December [2019] we saw this strategy – it was the most meaningful bit of policy I’ve seen in 15 years.”
Mr Palmer-Jones added: “The first prediction I see when I look to the future is that we will live in a very changing world, and from the policy document alone, you can see that the only constant we will have as an industry is that there will always be change.”
He remarked that the 5% predicted fall on recycling rates is “being generous” and said that despite this the UK won’t be affected as much as other member states although meeting targets in the near future might be made more difficult.
In the more distant future though, Mr Palmer Jones said he was confident that funding would be provided for greater infrastructure and that the proposed policies in the Defra strategy would positively influence the industry over the next 30 years as producer responsibility schemes kicked in.
He also pointed to technical developments, such as waste tracking and other data standards, as evidence that the data reporting of waste will improve to allowed for more informed decisions.
Past
Mr Palmer Jones’ address followed on from one given by Steve Lee, who is now an independent consultant after a career with the Environment Agency and also as a chief executive of the CIWM. Mr Lee looked at how far the industry had come over the past 30 years.
Steve Lee looked back on how far the sector has come since the NERF was formed 30 years ago
He highlighted how trends of waste disposal could develop and change very quickly which made hime feel there was a danger in making predictions too far into the future.
For example, he said in 1989 the market thought landfill would continue to be the main route for disposal, and the use of incinerators would continue to be minimal.
“We had just been through a decade of closing down treatment where I was in Leicester, and we were moving into a logistics and landfill world. It wasn’t glorious but it was easy and there was money in it,” he explained.
Mr Lee added: “A lot of people were OK with that, and all the predictions were that it would carry on. When you think back to how old fashioned it actually was, you realise we have come a long way.”
He also emphasised that while the waste industry can be difficult to predict, the progress in the last 30 years has shown that “things are going in the right direction”.
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Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
