United Kingdom – The incineration of any material that survives the end-of-life vehicle (ELV) recycling process, ranging from plastics to foam, textiles and wood, will qualify as recovery rather than as disposal, the UK government has announced. This means burning the varied residual shredder output will impact ELV recovery targets.
The decision by the Environment Agency and the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has been warmly welcomed by the nation’s metals recyclers. They have been told, however, that the material must be burned in a facility that meets the efficiency standards of a municipal waste incinerator in order to be classified as ‘recovery’.
Since 2010, the British Metals Recycling Association (BMRA) has claimed that re-classification would prove essential to the UK meeting its fixed target of recycling 95% from ELVs, scheduled to come into effect from 2015. Now the lobbying has finally paid off, the association expects some 800 000 tonnes of material to be diverted from landfill.
‘For more than two years, BMRA and key players in the industry have been calling for government to be decisive in providing a policy framework in which the UK metals recycling industry can take a lead in the advanced recovery of end-of-life consumer goods in Europe,’ BMRA’s Director General Ian Hetherington has told letsrecycle.com. With the right policy framework in place, the metals recycling industry will ‘endeavour to retain a lead in developing materials recycling and recovery’ while also ensuring green jobs and growth in the sector, he added.
For more information, visit: www.recyclemetals.org
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