United Kingdom – The carpet industry in the UK would be wise to draw up an action plan for diverting carpet from landfill once and for all, argues Simon Macaulay, recently-elected Chair of the Flooring Sustainability Partnership (FSP).
‘The government has said that they want to consult on this during the course of this parliament – and we are already two years in,’ letsrecycle.com has been told by Mr Macaulay. ‘The impression I am getting is that government would rather the industry came up with a producer responsibility position, taking full responsibility for end-of-life disposal.’
The FSP Chair believes his hopes of seeing the carpet sector host material-specific legislation are quite dim, as the government will opt to realise ‘something along the lines of the end-of-life vehicle directive’. He points out: ‘There, sensible timescales were built in to allow manufacturers to adapt and change and invest in the processes and systems required.’
Some 66 000 tonnes of carpet was prevented from entering landfills in 2011 alone, resulting in a diversion rate of 16.5%. As a ‘great believer in producer responsibility’, Mr Macaulay emphasises that the industry has ‘a lot to gain’ by doing the right thing and actively participating in re-directing the amount of waste now destined for landfill.
In comparison with other European countries, the progress made so far in the UK is less pronounced, according to the FSP Chair. ‘There is much work still to do as post-consumer carpet is expensive and bulky to move around the country, and the infrastructure and markets for disposal and recycling are still developing,’ Mr Macaulay stated. ‘There is an energy recovery infrastructure in Europe but in the UK this is still in its infancy.’
He predicts it will take five to 10 years to divert all carpet from landfill. This time would be best used to design more sustainable carpet and to stay ‘on the front foot with the government’, Mr Macaulay believes.
Determining an end-goal that is pragmatic is vital to guaranteeing long-term results. ‘We still have 80% of the waste to deal with,’ he notes. ‘We do not want to get into the situation found by the plastics industry of setting up a timescale that it cannot then achieve.’
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