The case, brought by Valpak and the Environment Agency to clarify UK packaging waste regulations, found that because many brewers no longer own the pubs in which their bottled products are sold, they should not have any obligation as a “seller” of the packaging sold on licensed premises (see letsrecycle.com article) . The brewers will still have some obligation under the regulations because they pack and fill the bottles. But, their obligation diminishes dramatically because of the ruling.
The decision also means that pubs with a turnover of below 2 million – or which handle less than 50 tonnes of packaging – are not obligated to ensure recycling is carried out. However, according to Valpak, there are still a great many pubs in the country that belong to chains, and are therefore still obligated.
Small pack products
One compliance scheme expert suggested that larger, city-based pubs will end up being obligated under the current regulations since they typically attract customers who purchase “small pack products” – bottled beers and soft drinks. But small pubs, particularly rural-based establishments, tend to have sales based much more on cask ales and food – with a far smaller amount of packaging sold.
The expert said: “Thus, the amount of non-obligated glass evading the regulations is probably smaller than some believe.”
The view inside some compliance schemes holds that since general recycling and recovery PRNs account for two thirds or more of an organisation's obligations, companies should still be in the market for buying glass PRNs even if they don't need them for their glass-specific obligations.
One scheme said: “After obtaining the material specific part of the obligation, organisations will simply seek the cheapest and most available PRNs in the market. As most PRN material types (except aluminium) appear to be settling down to around the same market price of 30 per tonne, this would suggest that people are using these materials, particularly wood, glass, paper and steel as general recovery/recycling.”
This would also point to the High Court ruling having little or no impact on the situation. However, some believe that such a view is not realistic – or at least that it is only a view taken by compliance schemes, because the outcome of the ruling is very much in their interest, since they will not need to secure so many PRNs.
Significant amount
Away from the compliance schemes, there is still a widely-held belief that there will be a significant amount of material that will no longer be obligated to be recycled, and that this will cause the industry problems.
Ron England, of Glass Recycling UK Ltd, said: “There are 134,000 licensed premises in the UK, and the average amount of tonnage of packaging for those is about 5.2 tonnes per outlet per year – so there's a lot outside the scope of the obligations.”
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