LAWR

The new materials recovery facilities (MRF) Code of Practice sampling and reporting obligations come into force this month. Here, Keith Freegard offers his opinion on the advantages and flaws of this system. ew regulations to be introduced this month require MRFs processing more than 1,000 tonnes of mixed waste per year to test their feed mate- rials and their useable output prod- ucts. These results must be reported to the Environment Agency (for MRFs in England) or to Natural Resources Wales (for MRFs in Wales). The Environment Agency says that these new obliga- tions are "intended to bring more transparency to the sorting and recycling of household waste". In recent years, we at Axion have realised the vital impor- tance to our own business of fully u n d e r s t a n d i n g sampling, meas- urement and reporting procedures. While it can be argued that certain aspects of the new regime represent something of a compromise, we see the MRF Code of Practice (MRF CoP) as a tool to raise standards within the sector and an opportunity to share our learning and help operators to make the most of their materials recycling plants. I disagree with suggestions that a 'one size fits all approach' would be wrong for the sector. This is because whatever the size of a MRF facility, any sample has to be taken with due regard for the size of this sample and the accuracy of the results you derive from it. 'Smaller players' Therefore the standardisation of sam- ple sizes for each material across the industry is vital and it is essential that those carrying out the hands- on elements of the task understand the importance of good sampling pro- cedures, accurate measurement and rigorous statistical processing of the recorded results. So you can't have a 'cutback' system for smaller play- ers because their results would then become meaningless. Much discussion has centred on whether weight-based sample size is the right way to go. No, it's not. Axion has always advocated 'don't use weight, use number!' What's impor- tant about sample sizes of discrete packaging items, whether they are plastic bottles, tin cans or cardboard boxes, is not the weight of the sample, but the 'number' of individual items included in your sample. This is because you are doing a sta- tistical pick of a number of individual items from a very large population; in this case the 'population' might be a huge pile of all the plastics collected N MAPPING THE MRF 26 Local Authority Waste & Recycling October 2014 Keith Freegard Making the most of your MRF

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