MEPs on the environment committee voted narrowly to adopt the proposals to raise the minimum recycling target for packaging from the European Commission's suggested 55% (by weight) up to 65% by 31 December 2008 (see letsrecycle.com story).
“We're moving from the physically practical into the physically impossible,” said Phil Conran, recycling manager for Biffa Waste Services. “By going up from the minimum of 55% to 65% effectively adds around 950,000 tonnes of additional packaging recycling – albeit with an extra two years.”
The approved Corbey proposals kept the minimum recycling targets for each material the same as before – 60% for glass, 55% for paper, 50% for metals and 20% for plastics. However, since the easiest way to boost the overall recycling target to 65% is by increasing glass and paper recycling, Mr Conran said that this means in reality a minimum of 80% for glass and 75% for paper will be needed.
“You're not going to get that out of domestic waste stream. 65% for glass is extremely tricky, but 80% is inordinately difficult,” he said. “Virtually every member of the public is going to have to participate – around 95% of people are going to need to put 90% of their glass in, and that is not feasible.”
Ash
Another industry expert agreed that what Europe is proposing will be an extremely difficult task. He said that the first step to allowing the waste industry to cope with the demands would be to accept incinerator bottom ash as glass recycling when it goes into aggregates.
He said: “When you burn municipal waste, a lot of what you have left is glass – something like 20%, and once the metals are removed – with magnets and so on – it just ends up going into aggregates anyway. We're going to have to use bottom incinerator ash.”
The expert expressed some surprise that wood has not been included in the amendments to the Corbey proposals. Around 1.5 million tonnes of wood waste is diverted to landfill every year, and a large proportion of that can be classified as packaging, for example if it is in the form of wooden pallets.
Waste generation
Feeling within the industry is that the new stipulation that companies will have to cut down on the generation of packaging waste by 10 per cent from 1998 levels will also be unworkable.
“Well, from 1998 to 2006 the projected growth in packaging is by 4%,” Mr Conran said. “How do you apply national 10% reduction to individual producers? It all sounds easy in practice, but when you get to applying it, it's extremely difficult.”
However, there is a long way to go before the Corbey proposals on packaging waste recycling is enshrined in law. Although the proposals have been adopted by the Environment Committee, it was by a very close margin – MEPs on the committee only passed it by 25 votes to 22, with 5 who abstained – and the proposals will still have to pass through the European Parliament before being signed and ratified.
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