Speaking about his committee’s work in assisting government with the development of packaging waste policy, Mr Conran said that the focus was on ensuring that the PRN system was operating as successfully as it could, rather than making any fundamental change.
Under the PRN system, certificates of recycling evidence, known as packaging waste recovery notes (PRNs), are purchased by those in the packaging chain producers to show that they have met their obligations to fund the recycling and recovery of packaging waste as required by the UK Packaging Waste Regulations. PRNs are sold on an open market which mean that prices fluctuate according to supply and demand.
Mr Conran said that looking at how to make the system less volatile would be a priority as the fluctuating price of PRNs did not necessarily foster investment in recycling, as was the intention of the producer responsibility legislation.
“There is no intention to get rid of PRNs. All we are looking at is seeing if there is a better way that the PRN system can operate”, he said.
“The key question is what are we trying to achieve and is there a better way of achieving it other than the volatile system we have at the moment. For instance, plastics PRNs at the moment are trading at around £50 a tonne and five months ago it was more like £10 or £15 a tonne. You can’t predict the cost going forward so it is not a good basis for investment. We are looking at how the PRN system operates and whether there is a better way of making it operate in the future.”
Mr Conran’s comments come ahead of the ACP’s quarterly meeting next month. At the meeting a number of recommendations are due to be put forward for ways in which the transparency of the PRN system can be improved and also how the PRN system can assist councils in meeting the 2020 recycling targets.
However, Mr Conran sounded a word of caution over how budget cuts at Defra of up to 40% may limit the ability to make improvements to the PRN system going forward.
He said: “Defra is already operating under a very tight resource and the concern from the ACP point of view is that going forward it may make it difficult to make substantial improvements to the PRN system.”
Targets
One issue which Defra is under pressure to make an announcement on is the future direction of packaging recycling targets post 2017, when the current targets run out. However, any decision on this front will depend on the targets set by the European Commission as part of the Circular Economy package, due to be unveiled in December.
In the meantime, Mr Conran explained that a consultation on potential changes to the existing plastic packaging waste targets is in sight. A consultation on this and broader changes to the packaging and batteries regulations was launched earlier this year (see letsrecycle.com story).
He said: “We are expecting a consultation at some point this year on changes to the plastics targets. Research indicates that less plastics is being placed on the market than Defra thought meaning that our plastic packaging recycling rate is higher than previously thought. Therefore the business target of 57% by 2017 effectively achieves a higher UK recycling rate than previously calculated.
“The question is are we trying to achieve too high a target too quickly, or can the targets be reviewed to ensure they do not place too great a burden on businesses? I expect we will see options including to keep the target as it is, extend it over a longer period or reduce it – I don’t know at this stage.”
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