Page 25 from: January / February 2013

I N T E R V I E W

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the trade slumped and a lot of the multi-nation-

als were no longer making substantial profits.

Thinking back to the 1990s, there was still a

culture of “Why bother with recycling when

there’s still plenty of profit to be had from

trucking and landfilling?” These days, waste

management companies’ customers demand

that they are involved in recycling. With China

starting to buy in the early part of the Millen-

nium, some people in waste management got

used to seeing prices for recovered paper only

going higher. Some continue to expect prices

that are unsustainable in the current market

environment; they shouldn’t be basing their

budgets on constant price growth.’

Regarding the growing involvement of
waste management giants in recycling,
how significant has this development
been?
‘It’s been the biggest change in the recovered

paper sector in my time – and not necessarily a

change for the better for reprocessors because

their suppliers are now generally larger than

they are and so want to call the tune. This often

harms the way collections are done; I’m not a

fan of co-mingled collection because it doesn’t

use skills developed through material speciali-

sation. As a result, we’re not getting the same

quality at the end.

There should still be room in the industry for

specialists – people who can offer an individu-

al service in a local area or who have knowledge

of a specific material or operation, such as secu-

rity shredding. The problem these days is how

they would get started in the business.’

OK, here’s the ‘magic wand’ question: if
there were a couple of things you could
change relating to recycling, what
would they be?
‘There is a lot of “quasi” regulation in the UK

and elsewhere to drive recycling. So why not just

say: “No more recyclables are to go to landfill”?

They have done it in some countries, and it

would make all the other regulations redundant.

Also, I do wonder about the lack of strategic

planning. For example, it is pretty clear that the

Far East market is tightening, so what would we

do with all the tonnage in the UK and Europe if

this outlet suddenly became a lot smaller? Cer-

tainly in the UK, it would lead to a wholesale

change. So I would certainly want to get rid of

short-termism and look at a proper strategy.’

So what next for Nick Francis?
‘Recently, I retired as a Non-Executive Director

of the Waste & Resources Action Programme

(WRAP); and then on January 1 this year, I

stepped down as Commercial Manager for Envi-

ronmental Services at May Gurney plc. I am now

a Trustee of the national body of the Religious

Society of Friends (Quakers), and this role will

take up more of my time. But if there is work out

there in recycling that people would like me to

do and I would like to do, such as helping local

authorities understand how markets work and

establish contacts, I’d always consider it.’

* The Frip Ethique venture was featured in the March 2008 issue of
Recycling International.

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