ACP task force to look into packaging waste exports

The committee, which advises Defra on how industry sees the current system of producer responsibility for packaging waste, is to look at the role of exports in meeting the UK's recovery targets under Europe's Packaging Directive.

” If China shuts up shop or India refuses to take in packaging waste for any reason, there would be problems meeting the targets.“
– John Turner, ACP
John Turner, the former Valpak chief executive who chairs the ACP, said he was particularly keen to look at the risks involved in the UK's dependence on exports to meet European recovery targets in 2008 and beyond.

Exports of packaging waste have rocketed in the last few years – feeding the demand for material from China and other overseas markets.

From 2001 to 2004 the export of packaging waste from the UK more than doubled to 840,478 tonnes – and it is expected that exports will easily breach the one million tonne mark this year.

Risks
Mr Turner said: “I don't think we know enough about the rigmarole around exports – the way it is framed and the risks if exports dried up. If China shuts up shop or India refuses to take in packaging waste for any reason, there would be problems meeting the targets.”

The number of exporters being accredited to sell PERNs – to obligated producers to demonstrate their producer responsibility – has also rocketed. In 1998 there were just four accredited exporters issuing PERNs, compared to 106 just five years later. The revenue from issuing PERNs grew alongside this from 957,692 in 1999 to over 14 million in 2002.

Another topic it may look into is the protocols governing the exports of materials like steel. Accredited exporters can issue steel PRNs against an agreed percentage of all scrap steel that they are exporting, regardless of the actual content of steel packaging within the scrap being sent abroad. The task force will look into whether the agreed level of this “protocol” is currently set at the right level.

The task force could also look into the efforts involved in the issuing of export PRNs (PERNs) compared to the efforts needed by domestic reprocessors in issuing PRNs that sell for the same value.