Metal packaging industry hits back at recycled content bill
Simeon Goldstein, packagingnews.co.uk, 31 March 2009
Metal packaging recycling bodies have blasted calls for minimum recycled content legislation as counterproductive to reducing the total use of primary material.
Southampton Test MP Dr Alan Whitehead proposed a Bill last week that called for minimum levels of recyclate to be established, but Alupro and Corus Steel Packaging Recycling said that end-of-life recycling was a much better measure of success as recycled material was pooled to use in a range of applications.
Rick Hindley, Alupro executive director, told Packaging News metals should be recycled on a "material-to-material and not product-to-product basis" to ensure a reduction in overall primary aluminium use.
"If you want to increase recycled content in a can, you are removing the amount of recovered material you can use in cars or the London 2012 Olympic stadium," he said.
CSPR manager David Williams backed the call to focus on end-of-life recycling and said recycled content was "only one of the indicators" for better environmental practice.
"You need to look at each material individually to work out how to improve recycling rates and the overall use of recycled material," he said.
Whitehead proposed the Bill on 25 February to establish minimum levels of recyclate in order to "close the loop" in UK recycling.
"This Bill seeks to secure the future for successful recycling in the UK by making sure that as much as possible goes back into the loop of production, consumption, recovery and presentation for reuse," he said.
It is due for a second reading in the House of Commons on 8 May.
