Quality Is King

摘要

Ciwm's Quality is King seminar held in December last year taught me, once again, that just as you think you have a handle on what seems to be a basic waste principle, it turns out to be more complex and challenging. I thought the quality recycling debate was reasonably straightforward: collect as much as you can, meet your targets, ensure there is a market for the collected material and keep it as clean and uncontaminated as possible to generate a high price. While that remains the basic concept there are, of course, a lot more factors at work. Starting at the collection point, the method employed can have a dramatic effect on quality. The commingled against kerbside sort argument isn't going away and is either the problem or the solution, depending on experiences. A headlong drive to meet weight-based recycling targets may leave us with plenty of glass and organics, but of low or limited market value.