Page 8 from: April 2013

8 April 2013

N E W S

Chinese authorities have been
instructed to ‘intensify investigation and
punishment’ to better manage ‘foreign
waste’.
In a letter to port customs officials, the
government calls for immediate action
to prevent plastic waste from being
‘mixed or hidden’ among recyclable
material, in line with its stricter quality
requirements.
The missive states that the general sec-
retary of the Central Committee Xi Jin-
ping, who was elected the new Presi-
dent last November, has imposed a ‘high
priority’ on checking containers of waste
material arriving from abroad. ‘The party
has organised targeted meetings to
study and comprehend instructions from

the leaders, research measures to tackle
the issue, and has decided to organise a
special team to crack down on foreign
waste,’ it is noted.
These instructions are expected to have
a significant effect. ‘We see markets
becoming more volatile,’ letsrecycle.com
has been told by Yaya Cao, Marketing
Executive at the Environment Exchange
‘For those involved, the certainty of
traded forward contracts becomes
increasingly desirable.’ A UK plastics
exporter adds that ‘prices are weak’ and
that shipping lower-grade material to
Chinese ports is becoming increasingly
difficult, with some instances of contain-
ers being sent back.
www.t2e.co.uk

China to intensify
import crackdown

Royal Assent for UK’s Scrap Metal
Dealers Act
The Scrap Metal Dealers Act has received Royal Assent, thus cementing it
into UK law. The director general of the British Metals Recycling Association,
Ian Hetherington, describes the legislation as ‘a milestone in bringing licens-
ing up to date and in tackling metal theft’.
‘The implementation of the new Act in October will eradicate some of the
issues brought about by the introduction of the LASPO Act (Legal Aid,
Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012) late last year and will
help to close down traders who operate on the wrong side of the law,’
Hetherington continues.
And he notes: ‘We now have six months in which to work with local author-
ities, the Environment Agency, the police and members to make sure that
everyone has the tools in place to follow and enforce the new rules as
quickly as possible.’ www.recyclemetals.org

Commission unveils green
paper on plastic waste
The European Commission has
launched a consultation exercise on
policy options for a further reduction of
plastic waste, ENDS Europe has report-
ed. This move indicates that no action
will be proposed before 2014 when EU
waste legislation is due to be revised.
The long-anticipated green paper com-
prises most if not all the policy options
put out to consultation in 2011, includ-
ing the phasing-out or banning of plas-
tic waste landfilling. Arguing that a ban
on plastic bags would violate the pack-
aging waste directive, some manufactur-
ers have already taken a stand against
such a proposal. The European Commis-

sion’s environment department says
pricing measures to reduce the number
of plastic bags in circulation should be
examined, citing the results of a study
suggesting they account for more than
70% of total waste collected by trawlers
along the Tuscany coast.
The department adds that ‘soft mea-
sures’ – such as guidelines for producers
and retailers – could also be adopted to
further reduce packaging waste, which
has been calculated to represent 63%
of all plastic waste generated. Stake-
holders have been given until June 7 this
year to answer the 26 questions in the
green paper.

Instead of sending leaded cathode
ray tube (CRT) glass from television sets
and computer monitors to processors,
electronics recyclers in the USA have
‘stockpiled’ millions of pounds, accord-
ing to a recent report from e-scrap con-
sultant Transparent Planet.
‘Increasing awareness of e-waste dis-
posal issues and the success of state-
legislated take-back programmes have
resulted in unprecedented volumes of
CRT glass entering the recycling stream,’
it says. ‘However, a combination of mar-
ket factors and mismanagement have
resulted in price wars and stockpiling of

collected glass.’ Transparent Planet goes
on to claim that around 660 million
‘ghost pounds’ of CRT glass sent for
recycling ‘are sitting in undisclosed loca-
tions throughout the US with recycling
costs approaching US$ 350 million’.
Whereas recyclers earned US$ 205 per
tonne from recycling CRT glass back in
2004, the ‘shrinking options’ for the
material have radically altered the pic-
ture, according to the Electronics Take-
Back Coalition, which collaborated on
the report alongside the National Center
for Electronics Recycling.
www.transparentplanetllc.com

Concern over CRT glass
stockpiling

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