Defra seeks views on packaging recovery regulation

The consultation proposes to remove the September 30 deadline for accreditation under the packaging regulations, which has been seen as a barrier to increasing UK packaging recovery rates.

”To ensure that the government can put in place any change for the rest of this year, the consultation exercise needs to be carried out now.“
– Defra
In a statement issued today, Defra said: “The brief consultation paper published today proposes to remove the 30 September deadline for applications for accreditation from the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997 (as amended) in England and Wales and the parallel statutory instruments in Scotland.”

Under the current regulations, reprocessors or exporters that wish to issue packaging waste recovery notes (PRNs) must apply for accreditation by September 30 before the year of accreditation. PRNs are sold by reprocessors to packaging producers to show they have complied with producer responsibility regulations for packaging waste.

Limit
Reprocessors and exporters have warned that the September 30 deadline limits growth, since new or expanded reprocessing plants cannot be accredited part-way through a year (see letsrecycle.com story).

Exporters added their concerns last month, because the regulations forced them to name all the foreign mills they would be exporting packaging waste to in the approaching accreditation year. Exporters said changing global markets would make such an undertaking impossible (see letsrecycle.com story).

Urgent
In a statement issued today, Defra said: “To ensure that the government can put in place any change for the rest of this year, the consultation exercise needs to be carried out now.

“Because of the very urgent nature of this matter, therefore, the government proposes to consult for three weeks only. Any longer and any changes may not be able to be implemented rapidly enough to take effect this year,” it added.

The deadline for responses to this consultation is 5pm on February 28, 2005. The consultation paper is available from the Defra website or by emailing James McNamara at james.mcnamara@defra.gsi.gov.uk.