Earlier this week (16 March), the Cabinet Secretary for the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform laid regulations in the Scottish Parliament that will create the legal framework for the Scottish Government’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS).

The Regulations will now lie before the Scottish Parliament for fifty-four days to allow a further period of scrutiny. There will then be a vote in the Scottish Parliament, after which the scheme will become law. In response to the announcement, Rick Hindley, executive director at Alupro, offers his views:

“For some considerable time, the Scottish Government has been considering plans for the introduction of a national DRS. Aiming to tackle plastic pollution, increase recycling rates, improve recyclate quality and minimise litter, proposals have gained strong support from NGOs and the media.

“However, despite such promise, I was deeply disappointed to read the final scope of the regulations. While sense has prevailed and the commencement date has been pushed back to July 2022, there are still a number of concerning points.

“Firstly, despite widespread opposition, the regulation opts for a flat deposit rate of 20p on all sizes of container. This is double the level typically used in the highly successful Scandinavian programmes and will lead to unintended consequences – specifically on the sales of multipack cans.

“As an example, the cost of 24 cans in a multipack will increase by £4.80, with the same volume in large plastic bottles rising by just 80p in comparison. Research suggests that two thirds of consumers would be likely to switch their purchasing behaviour to the cheaper option, resulting in the unnecessary production of 823 million more plastic bottles (8.2m in Scotland).

“In order to avoid distorting the market, we believe the deposit rate should vary according to the size of the container to avoid favouring one material over another. It’s an approach that works in many Scandinavian countries which are being cited as best practice examples to follow.

“Finally, we are concerned about the timing of the planned assessment of performance against targets. It will become apparent very quickly if the scheme is working, or if changes are needed. Waiting three years for a review could prove hugely (and unnecessarily) damaging to the packaging industry.

“There is much to consider if the Scottish DRS is to be a success. The last thing we’d want is a situation similar to that in Germany, where a poorly designed system caused can sales to plummet by 96% almost overnight.

“As such, we believe changes to the regulations are essential and we implore the Scottish Parliament to think carefully during this fifty-four day period of further scrutiny about the industry’s widespread concerns.”

 

ENDS

 

Did you know.….from your black bin bag waste, valuable metals can be recovered that you were not able to recycle in the first instance?  As a keen recycler, I thought this was certainly worth exploring.

Scanmetals UK Ltd, based in Willenhall, invited me to tour their recycling and recovery plant, in order to see the process of recovering aluminium and other non-ferrous metals from incineration plants, for the purpose of recycling.

For the uninitiated, the general waste materials are collected at the household kerbside by your local council and taken to an energy from waste plant (EFW). Here the material is passed through the incinerator and the residue left behind is known as incinerator bottom ash (IBA). The majority of this IBA is known as aggregate, and it usually contains an amount of ferrous and non-ferrous metals. The IBA is delivered to an aggregate company where it is cleaned and treated and then the aggregate material is sold to companies like Scanmetals who specialise in the recovery of the non-ferrous metals for recycling.

Before my visit, I was advised not to wear my ‘best clothes’; arriving at Scanmetals, unlike other processing facilities I have visited, there was no distinctive smell, but it is extremely dusty in the arrival bay area.

My guide, the lovely Joao, showed me where the aggregate material is delivered from the suppliers and where it is deposited in the large bay area. Joao explained that each suppliers’ material is kept in separate bays in order to report back to each EFW plant the exact amount of non-ferrous material recovered.

The aggregate material looks like a mass of dusty grey stones of all shapes, but on closer inspection (if you don’t mind the dust), you can easily identify items such as aluminium can lids, toothpaste tubes and aerosols.

Joao explained the aggregate material is loaded onto a hopper and is passed in a drier machine (that looks like a big drum) which removes the dirt and moisture and is then passed into a second drier for further cleaning.

We then walked through into a second warehouse, where the cleaned aggregate material is transported on a sort of enclosed conveyor. In here, there were huge pieces of equipment where the different sizes of metal are treated and separated using the latest sorting technology.

I was shown the different types of metal that the Scanmetals technology can recover, such as aluminium, copper, brass, zinc, stainless steel and a surprisingly large amount of coins.

It is an incredible and unique process that we should be shouting about – when it comes to metals, nothing goes to waste. Inspired by what I saw and working with Scanmetals, we’ve produced a video to show their process of recovering aluminium from non-ferrous aggregate materials.

Click on the film below to view this unique process.

 

According to figures released by the Environment Agency (EA) earlier this week (12 March), 116,670 tonnes of aluminium packaging were collected for recycling in the UK last year – a 17% increase compared to 2018 figures (99,852) and surpassing government targets by more than 8,400 tonnes.

Aluminium packaging collected through kerbside, bring and on-the-go systems increased by almost 21% (from 74,595 to 89,974), while tonnage recovered from incinerator bottom ash also experienced an uplift (from 25,546 to 26,696).

Rick Hindley, executive director at Alupro, commented: “I was delighted to read the EA data, which highlights another impressive rise in the volume of aluminium packaging collected and recycled across the UK. Since 2010, the industry has experienced a steady increase (11%), which should be seen as a considerable achievement!

“Record rates suggests increased public awareness about the benefits of  aluminium recycling and positive action towards improving resource efficiency. This highlights the importance of our behavioural change programmes – MetalMatters and Every Can Counts.

“Looking forward to the first two months of 2020, provisional data highlights a year-on-year increase of 52% (compared to the same period in 2019), with 19,371 tonnes of aluminium already collected for recycling.  This, alongside a highly positive carry over, puts the industry in an excellent position to surpass this year’s targets, which again increase by 3% (from 61% to 64%).

“Consequently, under normal market conditions, we anticipate that PRN prices should begin to fall and return to a more realistic and sustainable level. It’s therefore essential that we continue to celebrate increasing recycling rates, while maintaining focus on achieving our ambition of close to 100% recycling across the UK.”

To access the 2019 recycling rates, visit the Environment Agency’s National Packaging Waste Database (NPWD) here.

 ENDS