Comingled collections should not be criticised

The Chief executive of a major UK waste management company has hit back at the Campaign for Real Recycling (CRR) for criticising the practise of co-mingled collections.

Ian Wakelin of Greenstar UK, insists that co-mingled ( or mixed) collections could increase recycling levels by 15 per cent.

“I don’t agree with the CRR’s argument that co-mingled collections undermine the environmental and financial benefits of recycling.” he commented, describing their criticism as ‘very frustrating’.

“The negativity of co-mingled press driven by proponents of kerbside collections is very frustrating. We need to make recycling as simple as possible and the best way to do this is through giving householders one bin for recycables.”

The CRR claims that materials collected through this method lead to quality problems for reprocessors. Data from Defra’s WasteDataFlow shows that up-to 10 per cent of waste sent by households to material recycling facilities (MRFs) are rejected.

Wakelin explained that if recyclers get it right, modern MRFs can produce outputs of 96 per cent. He dismisses the rejection rate as trivial, saying that With, the contaminates left behind form kerbside collections end up in landfill anyway.

The CRR’s Andy Moore, responded to Wakelin, saying;  “The CRR is not against MRFs and is not saying that it’s not possible to get quality product from them. It’s just that MRFs and co-mingled collections haven’t so far produced the material quality that UK and other reprocessors require.

With acknowledgement to Greenstar UK and the Campaign for Real Recycling. Please visit their websites for more details.