The outcome of the judicial review of the Producer Responsibility (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997, which was held on 13th May (see letsrecycle.com article), was finally announced in favour of Valpak, Britain's largest compliance scheme.
Jonson Cox, Valpak Chief Executive said: “We welcome the clarity of the decision and are pleased that an anomalous issue has now been resolved. We hope that the Environment Agency will accept the decision and work with industry to put it into effect.”
The hearing was held in order to decide who is technically the 'seller' of beverage items, including bottled beers, that is consumed on licensed premises. Under the packaging waste regulations the retailer of a product has to carry the largest share of the obligation acquired by that product under the regulations. Since most large brewers no longer own pubs selling their products, it was argued by Valpak that they should no longer bear responsibility for the retail element of the cost of the obligation for the recovery or recycling of the packaging materials.
The Environment Agency warned that if that was the case, a lot of easily recyclable material could simply be dumped in landfill sites, since independent pubs are not large enough to be obligated firms under European regulations.
Before the decision, the Environment Agency was worried that if a ruling was made in favour of Valpak, it might also apply to non-alcoholic items' packaging in supermarkets and shops. However, Valpak's Jeremy Cuthbert said: “We'll wait and see about that. We still need to discuss it with the Environment Agency.”
The Environment Agency was “disappointed” at the decision, but since the full transcript of the decision has not yet been made available by the courts, the EA's spokesman said that they will not yet decide on a response.
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