Government officials say they'll move a large pile of unused PPE from a site in Nottinghamshire so the "waste is properly processed". Hundreds of boxes of items such as face masks have been seen at the Tuxford Exports site in Calverton.
The company specialises in the recycling and dismantling of trucks, but one of the managers there confirmed staff took on a quantity of unused PPE from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) weeks ago. A report earlier in the year from the National Audit Office found that around 14 billion items of PPE were in storage across the country.
The government says that if it has surplus stock, it looks at options including selling, re-using or recycling it. It is understood that the intention was for the waste sent to Tuxford Exports to be recycled, but that regulations around recycling mean that it can't be processed at the Calverton site.
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As such, the Tuxford Exports manager said the PPE was being sent elsewhere and that he expected it to be gone from his site by next week. A spokesperson for the DHSC said: "Since the height of the pandemic, our storage costs have reduced significantly and we still continue to prioritise efforts to minimise them.
"Recycling is a carefully regulated business which needs to follow the appropriate rules and this site is currently being cleared to ensure any waste is properly processed. We are actively pursuing options to sell, donate, repurpose and recycle our excess stock in the most cost effective way, as well as seeking to recover costs from suppliers wherever possible."
As well as recycling, the government says it is looking to create energy from the PPE waste. Overall, it says that the aim is for around 15,000 pallets of PPE to be disposed of every month.
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