The Campaign for Real Recycling (CRR) will bring together local authorities who practice quality recycling collections with UK and Chinese reprocessors at its Who Sorts Wins seminar in Birmingham next month.
The conference will provide attendees with a unique chance to hear the latest news direct from the Far East quality recovered materials market through Chinese buyer Wade Schuetzeberg, representing the largest buyer of quality paper in the world, America Chung Nam B.V. MLM Ltd.
The event, sponsored by May Gurney plc, also features initiatives and developments from authorities and collectors leading in the fields of kitchen waste, partnership working, and in running both kerbside sort and commingled collections side by side. Senior local authority figures will also have a chance to discuss the latest thinking in operational development, service costs, comparing experiences with collectors and reprocessors as well as other authorities.
Mal Williams, Chair of CRR, said: “Material reprocessors are crying out for quality. At the same time, many local authorities are paying too much for services which don’t prioritise it. Now WRAP has confirmed that kerbside sort should be the preferred option, we are taking this opportunity to bring together some of the authorities who are getting it right. We’ll be looking at how best to maximise quality and minimise cost and we expect everyone attending, including reprocessors, to learn something interesting they can use in pursuit of those. So it’s about information, identifying the cutting edge domestic recycling collections and also a bit of a celebration of achievements so far.”
Mick Keogh of Berryman added: “All reprocessors know they need to work closely with their suppliers. This is a chance to take stock of that relationship and to see what we can do to improve operations and recycling in general. This is a very positive and welcome development by CRR.”
The glass sector has a new foot soldier in the battle to promote recycling in the form of Hank, ‘the singing bottle’. FEVE has developed Hank to appear in cartoon adventures about glass recycling using the ‘I’ll be back’ line made famous by Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1980s movie, The Terminator.
WRAP argues the evidence is clear that the quality of the materials recovered for recycling is affected by the way they are collected. It states: “Quality is important because it affects the uses the material can be put to. Quality materials can be easily reused in ways which give the most benefit to the environment.”