Following a meeting of concerned stakeholders convened by the Environment Agency on April 29th to discuss issues surrounding the export of recovered paper for recycling as Green List waste, a further meeting of stakeholders took place May 31st.
This meeting was facilitated and chaired by WRAP, who, at the request of stakeholders, had volunteered to take on this task in order to help stakeholders reach a way forward to address this problem.
At the recent meeting an action plan was agreed by all parties to build confidence in the export of materials for recycling and clarify the interpretation of what constitutes Green List recovered paper by the EA that has led recently to consignments of paper being held back at ports en route to export markets.
A working group of stakeholders has been convened to flesh out the detail of an action plan that will include the following key actions:
1. Develop work on agreed standards for exported recovered paper;
2. Develop an agreed methodology for testing of sorted loads for export, and;
3. Develop a Quality Assurance process for MRF/sorting operators that will feed into the process for agreeing standards for exported recovered paper.
The working group convened to take this work forward comprises of the following: Ray Georgeson, WRAP (facilitator); Peter McGuinness, Severnside; Chris White, Aylesford Newsprint; John Vivian, Grosvenor Waste Management; David Symmers, IWPPA; Mike Walker, Environmental Services Association; Kevin Thomas, Biffa; and Paul Dumpleton, Shanks.
The stakeholder group agreed that the timetable for this action was urgent, and all parties committed themselves to working as quickly as possible to agree these actions. If technical work is needed quickly, and resourcing is an issue, WRAP has indicated that it will look to find some financial support, but will expect other stakeholders to contribute as well.
The stakeholder group also agreed that it was vital that the Environment Agency were an active partner in this process, and they would be looking to the EA for an early indication of their support for this action plan.
The working group will be convening in the next couple of weeks to start work, and the next full meeting of all concerned stakeholders is scheduled to take place before the end of July.
More information on the group may be obtained by contacting Ray Georgeson, Director of Policy and Evaluation at WRAP and facilitator of the Stakeholder Working Group, tel. 01295 819667 or email: ray.georgeson@wrap.org.uk.