The UK's largest compliance scheme said that concerns that it has been holding steel PRNs – thereby making compliance difficult for other schemes – were “completely unfounded”.
” If other schemes are concerned that they may fail their members, they should perhaps have taken a longer-term view of the market.“
– Steve Gough, Valpak CEO
Under the packaging regulations, obligated packaging producers or their compliance schemes have to purchase sufficient PRNs of each material type to meet their recycling and recovery obligations.
Amendments to Defra's third quarter data effectively saw the national obligation of steel PRNs lowered by about 5,000 tonnes. Experts believe there will be “just about enough” steel PRNs available, but the question will be whether these notes “end up in the right place”.
With the market for certain material PRNs – plastic, steel and aluminium – facing potential shortages, the concern has been that some of these PRNs have been used towards obligated producers' general (overall) recycling obligations.
But following a suggestion in the press that Valpak could be one of the organisations holding surplus steel PRNs, the compliance scheme's chief executive, Steve Gough, said: “We do not at present have any surplus steel PRNs, and if we do we will make them available on the open market.”
Planning
Mr Gough said that like all compliance schemes, Valpak had found the market for steel PRNs tight this year, but that the scheme was “confident” of complying this year because of its “considerable forward-planning and investment”.
Mr Gough said: “If other schemes are concerned that they may fail their members, they should perhaps have taken a longer-term view of the market.”
Investment in the market is crucial to ensure future compliance, Mr Gough said, adding that schemes that had ignored this are “now beginning to feel the squeeze”. But he said: “Rather than pointing the finger at others, they should perhaps reconsider their internal planning strategies.”
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