Manufacturing

PAS 105 - Recovered Paper Sourcing and Quality for UK End Markets

In August 2007 WRAP and the British Standards Institution (BSI) introduced Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 105.

PAS 105 makes recommendations for, and gives guidance on, good practice for the collection, handling and processing of recovered paper intended for recycling within UK end markets. It is applicable to paper collected by local authorities, local authority contractors, community groups and charities, households and other commercial establishments.

“Quality is essential for the economic viability and overall sustainability of recycling.” says Dr Liz Goodwin, Chief Executive of WRAP. Dr Mike Burgess, Technical Manager for Paper at WRAP continues: “With an increasing amount of paper being collected for recycling it is vital that recovered paper is of a high quality and fit for purpose. This document, developed with the support of participants from all fields of the recovered paper supply chain, is designed to help promote best practice and understanding throughout the supply chain from collection through to UK reprocessing.”

Paper industry organisation PaperChain has welcomed the document because of its focus on quality. The organisation, which has "serious concerns about commingled collections", said the standard sets out the key requirements for the municipal waste sector to provide a quality of material that minimises losses from cross contamination throughout the entire recycling process. By providing a consistently high quality raw material stock to the recycler, the collector and sorter are ensuring that maximum recycling process efficiencies can be achieved.  With low non-recyclable waste stream rejects, this can then lead to the highest possible carbon savings."

Local authorities, through LARAC - the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee - welcomed PAS 105. Ian Mackenzie, the LARAC representative on the working group behind the standard said "the introduction of PAS 105 is a common sense approach to ensuring that secondary paper for recycling is fit for purpose. By following the guidance, local authorities and their partners will be able to ensure that paper for recycling achieves the quality required for reprocessing".

PAS 105 documents are available free of charge by contacting the WRAP helpline on 0808 100 2040 or emailing Sue Baughan.  Alternatively, you can download a PAS105 Summary (575 kb) [pdf].