From recycling rates to deposit return schemes, Alupro’s Tom Giddings has plenty to contend with at the moment. Waqas Qureshi spoke to the organisation’s executive director to find out what the strategy is for 2022 and beyond.
What was the aluminium recycling rate over the last two years, and what do you expect for 2022?
The figures show 68% recycling rate for 2021. For 2022 We’re hoping it will be a good rate as well. Q1 looked like a good start to the year but it’s early days. We’ll have to keep it as high as possible to hit the 69% target for this year. The vast majority of the aluminium market is cans (70-75%). The rest is made up of the other formats, such as aerosols, foil trays and rigid containers. So, 68% is the overall recycling rate, with cans the most recycled material within that.
Describe your brief as the independent voice for the industry.
We liaise on recycling, waste strategy, policies and generally anywhere where we can squeeze the most recyclate out of the recycling system. So that’s everything from direct DEFRA engagement, parliamentary engagement with MPs and ministers, as well as with the wider packaging and waste ecosystem like retailers, charities and NGOs or soft drinks brands or breweries. From an extended producer responsibility (EPR) perspective, we’re working in a lot of stakeholder groups, so we’re not just representing the aluminium industry We’re also providing competent, wider context in terms of changes needed. And that also plugs into deposit return schemes (DRS) and consistency framework as well as us. We work with local government and local authorities to get in and then work on a campaigns level.
Describe Alupro’s take on EPR.
We’re expecting more aluminium to be captured across the board. One thing we’re working on is what does the post-EPR landscape look like for our packaging? With DRS coming in, a lot of material that’s currently collected through the existing kerbside systems will no longer be available. So beverage containers won’t fall under EPR for aluminium as part of aluminium’s share, in theory. That means that we need to focus on what packaging formats are going to be leftover. Things like aerosols, the foil trays, foil wrap and rigid aluminium containers as well as tubes. So we’re working with our internal stakeholders and we’re working with the aluminium industry to identify just how impactful that’s going to be in terms of the mix of recycling. Beverage containers make up a large proportion of aluminium tonnage placed on the market and it’s going to impact the design of new systems. When we look at the EPR scheme, modulation of fees is going to be a really important factor for a lot of packaging materials. We think for aluminium, it’s probably slightly less volatile in terms of the costs plainly because predominantly aluminium packaging formats placed on the market are recyclable already, and we’ve been advocating a simple approach where aluminium is taken as a whole rather than considered on a format-by-format basis.
What is Alupro’s take on DRS?
Firstly, we want the cans to come back in closed loops. The best way to do that is a DRS, channelling everything back into the into the recycling process, to make sure we capture more of that tonnage. And it also reduces, from a technical and economic point, the waste and losses of plastics and the mixed bales. So, it’s a cleaner stream with higher quality, So the whole thing works better. However, since cans already have a UK recycling rate of 82%, much higher than when the DRS was originally proposed, the benefits of introducing the scheme need to be adjusted to account for this. Additionally, with all the divergence we’re seeing across the UK we’re making it harder for ourselves to implement what could be a world-class DRS, namely: a system that is all-in and includes all competing materials; adopts a variable rate of deposit to prevent unintended consequences, such as consumers switching away from multipacks of smaller containers into larger single containers; and finally ensures that all collected materials go back to packaging recyclers by default so we can actually realise the lifecycle benefits offered by high collection rates and ensure they follow through into high recycling rates.
What is Alupro’s view on a digital DRS?
We’ve been enthusiastically agnostic. We’ve been involved with the industry working group on that for nearly two years now. There are a lot of pros and cons. But there are some fundamentals that we know now to cause problems. Digital DRS relies on a unique code being printed on each container – which will affect the production speeds for beverage cans that are several thousand per minute. There are very technical challenges to printing unique codes that will be cogent and machine readable at that speed without damaging the structural integrity of the can and to the overall product. Let’s get the DRS working first with the initial generation of reverse vending machines (which only last between five and seven years) and then phase in digital DRS if the scheme administrator wants to.
Are you quite confident that the system the government is proposing will separate the plastic from the glass far easier with a DRS than before?
Yes. it’s no secret that the DRS is very popular not just within the UK but across Europe. The reason that we’re seeing the interest in Europe is a response to the single use plastics directive – this has a requirement to have separately collected plastics and a certain proportion by 2025 and a DRS is the way to accomplish that. So it’s a plastic-based push. However, within the UK, we are reaching 80% plus recycling rates for aluminium (cans). To reach 90% plus, we’ll probably need a DRS.
More than 88% of total volume was recycled within the UK and EU and just 12% exported. Where does it get exported to?
The vast majority of exported aluminium packaging end up in Europe for recycling, and of the remainder most ends up in the US, Turkey or China at aluminium plants. They would have paid high prices for the materials, and they might have spent tens of thousands in transport costs, so there is an enormous incentive for them to ensure they receive that material.
Are you confident the UK can transition towards a more circular economy and help to retain valuable material?
The short answer is yes. I am confident that we can do that. Under a circular economy, there’s no waste. When it comes to packaging, landfill is just unacceptable. You can’t produce products that can’t be recycled. EPR and consistency are really important. They are foundation stones that we need to be laying properly and not necessarily as they’ve been put forward by the government. They could be changed a little bit and also improved, but it going in the right direction. EPR is going to be incredibly important to set the ambition but it must also not be just be a cost-based exercise.
How confident are you about EPR reforms?
My biggest worry about EPR is that consumers aren’t mentioned once. And if you can’t get the consumers to do the right thing with the stuff that’s not going to be in a DRS, how can you possibly hit advanced targets? There remain many unknowns about the EPR reforms, with more working groups and activity streams signposted by DEFRA in their March 2022 update. My immediate concern is that the timelines for EPR starting are tight; if data needs to be reported from 2023, and payments are beginning in 2024 with eco-modulation in 2025, we need a scheme administrator in place very soon to oversee this and take ownership of the process. My other concern is around how all the different proposals interact with each other. You can’t hit EPR targets without consistency of collections; it’s the foundation stone of increasing the volume of material flowing through the waste systems and maximising the possibility of more packaging being recycled. We are ever hopeful that at the end of the day, we’ll stitch this all together, and there will be consistencies for DRS and EPR reforms across all the home nations. Call me an optimist!
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