Axion Polymers has successfully renewed its ISO management system certification at both its Manchester plastics recycling sites – and gained a new ISO18001 Health and Safety standard for the Salford facility.

Following an audit conducted by LRQA, Axion Polymers has been recertified for its ISO 9001 quality management systems at its Salford and Trafford Park sites. Based on seven quality principles, ISO 9001 certification covers all aspects of the plants’ operations, from manufacture to supply and customer service.

Axion’s Commercial Operations Manager Laura Smith comments: “We’re proud to have achieved renewal of our Lloyds Register ISO 9001 quality standards accreditation and this is testimony to the rigorous quality management procedures we have in place.

“Our customers can be assured that all Axpoly® and Axplas® products are manufactured according to the highest quality standards. Quality runs through everything we do.”

While the Trafford Park site has been recertified for OHSAS 18001, the Health and Safety management systems standard, it’s the first time that Salford facility has achieved this certification. OHSAS 18001 demonstrates a strict compliance with Health and Safety procedures.

Praising the team’s efforts, Axion’s General Manager Judith Clayman says: “Achieving this standard at both sites is a key goal for our company. The Health and Safety of our employees, subcontractors and visitors is our highest priority from their first footstep on site and subsequently throughout our entire operation.

“I am delighted that the whole team’s hard work has been rewarded with the certification. It demonstrates that robust implementation of policies, procedures and controls is in place to achieve excellent working conditions and workplace health and safety across the whole business. We will now be focussing our efforts on achieving ISO 45001, the new enhanced Health and Safety standard.”

Judith adds that Axion’s next step is to work towards achieving the environmental management standard ISO 14001 for both sites.

Proposals for an ‘all-in’ deposit return scheme (DRS) for drinks containers are a positive move to encourage people to recycle more and associate a value with waste plastic and other materials.

Including cans and bottles made from plastics, aluminium, steel and glass would also help to increase capture of ‘recycling on the go’ materials.

Axion’s Head of Consulting, Richard McKinlay welcomes the ‘all-in’ approach because it removes the incentive for brands to offer discounted alternatives not included in the DRS scheme, such as water in cans instead of bottles. The alternatives, he says ‘may be more environmentally impactful’.

Commenting on Environment Secretary Michael Gove’s hints on the likely contents of the government’s Environment Bill due later this year, Richard continues: “I think a deposit return scheme is needed; especially from a quality point of view to ensure we’ve got a high-quality food grade PET stream that allows recycling back into the highest quality applications.”

“More and more brands and retailers are facing targets of including higher recycled content in packaging, yet currently we haven’t got the quantity or quality of the material to achieve that.”

Concerns have been raised that implementing a DRS will impact on existing kerbside collections as people will be encouraged to separate bottles from their household recycling to return them and claim their deposit back. Fewer numbers of polyethylene (PET) bottles in household collections would leave local authorities with the lower quality PET trays. With fewer PET bottles in the waste stream, the ones that are still there may be harder to sort and extract.

Consequently, more MRF infrastructure will be required to re-sort the waste stream for PET bottles. Investment in the recycling infrastructure will also be needed to handle the remaining PET pots, tubs and trays.

On the plus side, Richard says the DRS will deliver better quality bottles for recycling. “It will be possible to recycle more bottles into bottles, and potentially, trays into trays, increasing the amount of food grade rPET on the market. However, investment in the processing infrastructure will be necessary for that to work.”

Although the ‘all-in’ system will have many positives and will work towards creating a level playing field, there are issues that will need to be resolved. The inclusion of beverage cartons in the DRS should be considered, to remove the incentive for brands to switch to using them as an alternative. There will be hygiene issues with certain foodstuffs such as dairy so it may be prudent to exclude fresh milk packaged in natural HDPE.

Highlighting the need for wider reform, Richard concludes: “This initiative shouldn’t be seen as removing value from local authorities. Although there may be some impact, the bigger picture is that more material overall will be recycled back into high quality products. DRS should be implemented as part of a broader reform of how we manage and recycle packaging waste, which should include Extended Producer Responsibility to remove the cost burden from Local Authorities.

“We should not be afraid to move away from the existing waste management infrastructure which is inherently unable to deliver on the Circular Economy.”