How can materials reprocessors work towards consistency?
Significant progress in recycling in England has been made in recent years, with the quantity of material recycled more than doubling in a decade, resulting in strong growth in the recycling sector. Today the recycling sector contributes around £3 billion in gross value added to the UK economy.
Achieving greater consistency will require the support of the UK reprocessing sector.
WRAP has worked with the recycling industry to develop the Recycling Guidelines, a list of items that can and cannot be recycled, along with how they should be presented by householders. There are many potential benefits of the guidelines to all in the supply chain, all of whom have a role to play in taking them forward.
How can reprocessors benefit from greater consistency?
Through the delivery of greater consistency in recycling, there are opportunities for significant benefits, such as:
- Reduced costs - Greater consistency in materials collected will help to reduce contamination from non-target materials which in turn will reduce costs to reprocessors of ‘cleaning up’ or removing contamination from sorted materials prior to reprocessing.
- Business opportunities - 13.2 million more householders would have access to a food recycling collection scheme and 11 million more householders would be able to recycle the core set of dry materials.
- Better quality through improved communications - Greater consistency provides increased opportunities for consistent communications, including labelling of packaging to indicate recyclability. This will help to increase capture of recyclate and reduce contamination.