Other countries will follow China’s lead on restricting imports of recycled material if quality standards are not met, one industry expert has warned.
The warning came from, Wade Schuetzeberg, executive director, European region at paper exporter, America Chung Nam (ACN), who was speaking during a conference held by the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM) in Northampton yesterday (1 February).
Wade Schuetzeberg, executive director, European region at ACN, at the CIWM conference in Northampton
Discussing non-China destinations for export material, Mr Schuetzeberg said: “We strongly, strongly believe that it will be short matter of time before they take the steps with China having led the way.”
Quality
“In that change and that transformation of the industry we could be left out and the one thing we need to do is make sure we take care of our quality.”
Mr Schuetzeberg was discussing the potential for the UK to redirect its exports of recovered materials to countries other than China. He gave the example of India and Indonesia, which he said were the next largest markets for recovered fibre, and, he explained, have “nowhere near enough offset in demand to be able to make up the difference that China could end up banning or not permitting”.
He said that the UK needs to focus on quality across the supply chain, from the source, through to the materials recycling facilities (MRFs) and the processers.
“We’ve taken certain approaches in recycling that have maximised quantity but not really focussed on quality. That chicken’s coming home to roost right now.”
And, Mr Schuetzeberg seemed to be in favour of material being segregated at the household. “Old ways can be very good ways and technology is not a replacement for good mentality,” he said.
“We need to see what’s going to happen in the second half of the year. Will the government begin to loosen up as they see importers actually meet and make the regulation that are required for the new GB standards? When they have confidence that you’re going to control the material that you’re importing to the correct standard then you will get more support.”
“But the moment you start walking off in the wrong direction and you have a problem they will reject it.”
And, he said that ACN will not ship a container if it sees a problem. “We’ll work with our supplier and we will keep it on this side of the water. I am not going to go through what I went through last year to have to repatriate material. It will kill my business.”
Potential
However, Mr Schuetzeberg was keen to point out that the potential for the quality and quantity of recovered material in the UK is “very high”. And, he highlighted the increase in packaging coming from the household which he attributed to the ‘Amazon effect’. “We would love to have that clean cardboard but if it’s mixed with other contaminated material it’s going to be hard for us to get that into China.”
China has been a major export destination for recovered paper and cardboard from the UK
Other speakers at the conference included CIWM president, David Wilson, who discussed China’s transition to looking at the environment “on par” with growth. He said the UK needs to find its own “local, internal, national solutions” to recycling materials.
Meanwhile, Stuart Hayward-Higham technical development director at Suez, spoke about capacity to treat material in the UK. Mr Hayward-Higham also discussed the potential for using water marking to track materials being recycled and extended producer responsibility (ERP) as ways of increasing recyclability of products.
Plastics
On the plastics side, Roger Baynham, chairman of the British Plastics Federation Recycling Group, spoke about the benefits of plastics as part of everyday life. He questioned whether going forward there should be a focus on targets or regulation to increase recycling rates. Referring to the recent Sky documentary, Dirty Business, he reiterated his earlier claims that the export PRN is “not fit for purpose” (see letsrecycle.com story). And, he said in the future there will need to be producer responsibility that extends to the consumer.
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Source: letsrecycle.com Plastic
