Trade body British Glass is strongly urging local authorities to collect glass separately from other materials, and even separate by colour, in order to halt the increase in the amount of glass being …
Trade body British Glass is strongly urging local authorities to collect glass separately from other materials, and even separate by colour, in order to halt the increase in the amount of glass being sent for alternative uses, which exceeded the amount being sent to remelt applications for the first time in 2009. The comments from British Glass came two months after a consultation was launched on potential changes to the Packaging Regulations including new recycling targets for the period 2011-2020, which would incentivise sending glass for remelt. British Glass called the consultation “an opportunity to address some of the burning issues for glass recycling” and collated information from the National Packaging Waste Database for 2009 as a foundation for its response. From these figures, the trade body claimed that the increase in material being sent to alternative uses such as insulation and aggregates, was because “councils and waste management companies have invested in collection systems that are often only capable of delivering glass suitable for aggregate use”. The organisation, which has campaigned for a number of years for source separate collections for glass, said that councils needed to look at “long term sustainability”, as opposed to meeting more immediate recycling targets when selecting collection methods. It cited the Packaging Strategy, published in June 2009, which says that glass recycled into containers saves up to 315kg of CO2 equivalent per tonne recycled, whereas aggregate does not provide any benefit. The trade body also suggested that colour separated collections would be the ideal means of returning material of suitable quality to glass manufacturers. Rebecca Cocking, recycling manager of the British Glass, said “Whilst we acknowledge that changes in collection systems will not occur overnight, some authorities and waste management companies are in a position to start making a change now, to improve the quality and quantity of glass”. The glass sector has remained vocal in its demand for more to be done for clear cullet to be drawn from the waste stream, with some in the industry calling on a government-led initiative to target overlooked areas of the glass waste stream. While there is a large amount of support from reprocessors for glass collections to be completely separate from other materials, there has been some credence given to “twin-stream“ collections where glass and plastics are collected separately to fibrous material. British Glass said that the increase in commingled collections meant that there was now more glass being sent to aggregates than to remelt. In 2008, 663,000 tonnes of glass went back into remelt applications to become glass containers, while 611,000 tonnes went to alternative uses. However, estimates based on figures from the National Packaging Waste Database show that, in 2009, the amount going to remelt had fallen by 22,000 tonnes to 640,000 tonnes, while 655,000 tonnes was now being sent to alternative uses, an increase of 44,000 tonnes on the 2008 figure. The amount being sent for export, mainly to European markets for reprocessing, continued to grow over the past 12 months, rising from 272,000 tonnes in 2007 to 341,000 tonnes in 2008 and 365,000 tonnes in 2009. British Glass did praise the idea proposed in the Packaging Regulations consultation which includes a differentiated target for glass depending on how the material is recycled. Ms Cocking said: “Including differential PRNs for remelt and aggregate in the consultation is a major step forward in acknowledging the environmental benefit of closed loop recycling and we hope that the outcome will be positive”. “We have been fighting for recognition of the environmental benefits of closed loop recycling for many years and are encouraged that this could soon become reality”. However, the trade association said that the definition of “remelt“ in the consultation was “not currently clear” despite its support for the principle of capping the amount of PRNs that could be written for glass aggregates at the 2008 level. It is unclear what effect the new coalition government will have on the proposed packaging targets, as the Conservatives have traditionally advocated a less prescriptive approach, while the Liberal Democrats have backed more producer responsibility.