LAWR

NEWS ANALYSIS Hungry for change Fast food litter is on the rise. Can the approach taken in Oxford clear the way to responsible behaviour and increased recycling? David Burrows reports. t was only one line, at the bottom of page 13, the last of 31 conditions in a new street trading policy. But Oxford City Council's proposal to require food traders to use packaging and utensils that are recyclable and biodegradable has managed to grab quite a few column inches in the past 12 months. Much has been made of the links to New York, where polystyrene food packaging has recently been banned. The local press here picked up on this: 'Takeaway trays to be banned by Oxford City Council' was the BBC's take, whilst the Oxford Mail reported that the city was to be the first in the UK to ban non-recyclable plastic takeaway boxes. Many other councils – particularly in London – have reportedly been following the story closely as they look at similar policies to cut litter. But with the text now agreed, what has changed in Oxford? Is there a ban in place and what will the impact be on the city's waste? 6 Local Authority Waste & Recycling June 2015 I First things first: there is no ban. The council's licensing committee guidelines state that "for food traders all packaging and utensils for use by customers shall be made of biodegradable or recyclable materials". The use of the word 'or' here has been heavily scrutinised. There has been confusion – including in the waste trade press – about whether the council had originally suggested 'biodegradable and recyclable'. In a statement, the council confirmed to LAWR that: "The policy originally stated that the packaging should be recyclable or biodegradable; there has never been a proposed requirement for both." Tricky terminology Still, some believe the wording is unhelpful. "Recyclable is a tricky word when it comes to packaging for food," explains Eilidh Brunton, group recycling consultant at eco-packaging manufacturer Vegware. "Many conventional foodservice items are made of lots of different materials stuck together making it very difficult to recycle. Once you cover this with food it's even more tricky." As a result, she adds, most of this type of packaging gets incinerated or landfilled because there is no value in it. Disposable coffee cups are, of course, a case in point. Paper cups are not just made of paper – they're also 5% polyethylene, in the form of a thin coating that prevents a morning latte turning to mush. But because it's fused to the paper layers, separating the two materials is very difficult; so, no-one has bothered and paper cups – as many councils will no doubt attest – have been a constant, though contaminant, in the recycling streams. This is where Oxford may have managed to put itself one step ahead of many others. The committee's initiative began as a litter-reduction exercise, but it has thrown the spotlight on a much bigger challenge: recycling more of the waste that ends up in street bins. This is perhaps one of the reasons it

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