St Peters Gardens, Northampton -- A new trade association, The Resource Association, has been launched few days ago, aiming to bring a unified voice to the reprocessing and recycling industries. The Association has been formed by a group of eleven companies and organisations, with former WRAP director Ray Georgeson appointed as chief executive.

The trade body will aim to mediate with governments across the UK, the European Commission, other trade associations and stakeholders with shared interests and bring a unified voice to the reprocessing and recycling industries.

The association's other main objectives include:

* Highlighting the reprocessing and recycling industries' contribution to carbon reduction, employment and economic development.
* Putting quality and recovery of the value of secondary materials at the heart of the reprocessing industry and its role in the local economy.
* Promoting resource integrity and closed loop systems.
* Engaging with local authorities and their service providers in the delivery of better recycling services that can sustainably provide quality feedstock to manufacturers.
* Communicating the value of the industry and reconnecting people to the materials they use and the way products are made from them.
* The Association will be overseen by a steering group. Consultant Ray Georgeson, a former WRAP director, has been appointed as director and will run the association from his base in Otley, West Yorkshire.

The Association has already produced an initial policy statement Advancing the agenda for a resource-efficient economy, which calls for the quality and usability of secondary resources to be prioritised over the merits of different waste collection methods and for the Government to promote quality as well as quantity of recyclates.

According to the mission statement, the Resource Association's vision "is for a UK resource efficient materials economy for the 21st century which realises value, prizes quality and seeks to maintain the integrity of the secondary materials which are still too commonly treated as waste".

The association says its aims "will be to support the development of a sustainable and healthy industry by providing a voice, forum and leadership for the materials reprocessing recycling industry and related environmental and social interests which is distinctive and clearly identifiable and separate from related interests in traditional waste management".

Discussions are said to be underway with "several more major companies" and the association is inviting other businesses and organisations to join it as founder members.

Full membership is open to all reprocessors of recovered materials.

Author: Darrel Moore

This article is reprinted by kind permission of the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM).

Quelle: Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM)

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