WRAP, EA Publish Report on Recycled Gypsum

A report, published by U.K.-based Waste Protocols Project, an initiative jointly developed by Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) and the Environment Agency (EA), is expected to increase market confidence in recycled gypsum and increase the demand for scrap plasterboard. The two agencies feel that the directive could boost sales by £10 million and could save industries that generate scrap plasterboard in excess of £8 million per year in disposal costs.

The Quality Protocol for the Production of Recycled Gypsum from Waste Plasterboard removes the ‘waste’ tag and negates the costs associated with waste management legislation regulating the storage and transportation of waste gypsum.

The Quality Protocol also ensures greater market confidence in recycled gypsum by stipulating that it is produced in accordance with the British Standards Institution’s Publicly Available Specification.

Gypsum materials are banned from non-hazardous landfills in the United Kingdom. However, until recently the EA took the view that mixed waste containing gypsum material of not more than 10 percent could be disposed of in non-hazardous landfills. The removal of this ‘10 percent rule’ in April 2009 means that producers can only send gypsum materials to monocell landfills.

“By establishing end-of-waste criteria and assuring standards, the Gypsum Quality Protocol makes it easier for end markets - predominantly plasterboard and cement manufacturers, and agriculture - to use recycled gypsum,” says Mervyn Jones, WRAP’s joint project executive.

“By increasing market confidence in recycled gypsum, generating savings for end users and increasing the value of sales of the product, the Quality Protocol could realize a net benefit to industry estimated to be £38 million between now and 2020,” Jones continues.

“Diverting more waste plasterboard away from landfills will yield considerable environmental benefits,” says Martin Brocklehurst, EA’s head of environment and business partnerships. “More than one million metric tons of waste plasterboard enters the UK waste stream each year and this new Quality Protocol will make it far easier to divert more of that material away from landfill and back into the production of valuable and useful products.”

“I’m confident this newest Quality Protocol will be welcomed by businesses operating across the recycled gypsum production and distribution supply chain,” Brocklehurst adds.

The protocol can be accessed by going to www.environment-agency.gov.uk/gypsum.