The need for the waste management and resource sector to work together on a joint resource policy for government was highlighted at this week’s annual Resource Association lecture.
After association chief executive Ray Georgeson had criticised the “withering vine” of policy development in England, guest speaker Dominic Hogg suggested that the sector comes together over the resource element policy of the government’s industrial strategy.
Dominic Hogg delivering the annual Resource Association lecture
Giving the Resource Association annual lecture, Dr Hogg, who is chairman of Eunomia Research & Consulting, suggested that the industrial strategy which is being developed by the Department for Business, is important and it would make sense for the waste and resource sector to come together in terms of a joint submissions And, he said that the offering from the sector needed to be different to those from other organisations.
“I think ours needs to be quite different – ours is an offer to other sectors.”
Dr Hogg said this would be a more “autonomous type of approach” and the trust of other sectors would need to be won with a message that the waste and resource sector acts in good faith and wants to work with others.
Quality awards
The speech, at the National Liberal Club in London, was followed by the Resource Association’s inaugural Quality Recognition Awards, designed to celebrate high-quality recycling delivered to reprocessors. Four of the six awards went to Welsh nominations.
Resource Association Quality Recognition Awards were presented to:
- Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council in conjunction with Bryson Recycling (nominated by Huhtamaki Lurgan)
- the Co-op (nominated by DS Smith Recycling)
- Conwy County Borough Council (nominated by the Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment, ACE-UK)
- Devon Authorities Strategic Waste Committee (nominated by Palm Recycling)
- Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council (nominated by Novelis Recycling)
- Wastesavers Recycling Ltd, Newport (nominated by UPM-Kymmene UK)
Purpose
Resource Association chairman Robbie Warden of UPM commented: “Our purpose in initiating this Awards scheme is to emphasise the good practice and the positive work being done to achieve consistently high quality recyclate by suppliers to reprocessors. The quality of recycling remains an issue dear to our hearts and we wanted to showcase to good work being done and say, ‘thank you’ to suppliers who deserve acknowledgement and recognition for their efforts.”
Chief executive Ray Georgeson said: “The recipients come from across the range of local authority, private sector and social enterprise interests in the supply chain and are a testament to the way all parts of that chain can work well to deliver high quality recycling.”
Dominic Hogg (left) with the award winners at the Resource Association event
AWARD WINNERS
(details supplied by the Resource Association)
Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council in conjunction with Bryson Recycling (nominated by Huhtamaki Lurgan)
For a collaboration between a district council and social enterprise in Northern Ireland which consistently delivers high-quality recycling, currently to over 16,000 households using the combination of the Wheelie Box (triple box) and Romaquip multi-material compartment kerbside collection vehicle, with high-quality fibre collected feeding Huhtamaki’s needs for their range of fibre-based packaging, including egg boxes.
The Co-op (nominated by DS Smith Recycling)
To a major national retailer which has a strong collaborative relationship with the reprocessor in managing cardboard and plastic packaging back-of-store. Information on any contamination spotted in bales is quickly fed through the entire supply chain and a dedicated Supply Chain Manager focuses on both volume and quality to deliver carbon benefits.
Conwy County Borough Council (nominated by the Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment, ACE-UK)
To a Welsh local authority which makes the extra effort to ensure that cartons are positively picked off the line at their MRF after delivery from their in-house kerbside collection, ensuring the quality is consistently good.
The Devon Authorities Strategic Waste Committee (nominated by Palm Recycling)
To a partnership of English local authorities that have strived to provide a quality News and PAM product during the life of their contract with the reprocessor. This has been undertaken by ensuring a clear understanding of the value of recyclable material, and good working relationship with the re-processors that they provide material to. With a source segregated collection of material carried out by East Devon DC, Mid Devon DC, North Devon DC and Teignbridge DC and a co-mingled excluding glass collection carried out by Exeter City Council separated by their own internal sorting facility. The councils have worked hard to ensure that they understand the quality requirements of the paper mill.
Merthyr Tydfil borough council (nominated by Novelis Recycling)
A Welsh local authority that not only works hard to understand the quality requirements of the end-users of material, the reprocessors, but does this successfully having adopted the Welsh Government Blueprint for recycling collections, with weekly separate collection in Romaquip vehicles, weekly food waste and revisions to residual waste collection. High-quality kerbside sort and further hand picking of material at the MRF combines to deliver the best quality product to the reprocessor.
Wastesavers Recycling of Newport (nominated by UPM Kymmene)
Robbie Warden who praised the work of Newport Wastesavers
A Welsh social enterprise that works in partnership with their local authority. They have supplied consistent high-quality material for a number of years without rejection and have recently upgraded their main site. Again, operating in the spirit of the Welsh Collection Blueprint and having been successfully collecting recyclables for 25 years, they work hard with their local authority and reprocessor customers to deliver quality, deploying innovative collection techniques (for example, in flats) and displaying a flair for effective communication.
Upon receiving the award, Penny Goodwin, CEO of Wastesavers said: “We really must thank the people of Newport for this award. It’s down to their efforts, and the work by our collection teams, that we’ve been given national recognition for the quality our recycling.” Robbie Warden, National Sourcing Manager at UPM Shotton added: “We’re very pleased to nominate Wastesavers for this award for the quality of paper they have consistently delivered to us over the years. We reprocess more than 360,000 tonnes of paper in North Wales every year and getting sources of good quality paper for recycling; like the paper coming out of Newport, is crucial for us.”
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Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
