A major new support programme for councils has been launched by Valpak, the UK's largest compliance scheme, which helps over 3,000 packaging companies meet their legal obligations to recycle packaging waste.
– Rick Hindley, Valpak
The scheme has appointed Rick Hindley, the former national manager of Alcan – and later Novelis – to take forward the programme of support for councils.
In a move welcomed by LARAC and the LGA, councils are now being invited to work with Valpak, its member companies and Valpak's partner reprocessors to assist the UK in reaching the producer responsibility targets set by Europe's Packaging Directive for 2008.
Mr Hindley told letsrecycle.com that Valpak had recognised that lobbying government to push councils to help with producer responsibility for packaging waste would have had little effect. But, he said Valpak now believed it could take a positive approach to assist councils in meeting recycling targets – and to some degree landfill allowance targets.
“We're not saying we know everything,” he said, “but we do have the ability to make connections – we have strong relationships with reprocessors and can strengthen the market end of the recycling chain.”
PackFlow
Valpak's local authority programme was born directly out of the results of the PackFlow project – a national research project that provided an idea of exactly what packaging waste collections are planned for the Directive's target year, 2008 (see letsrecycle.com story).
Mr Hindley said the findings of the PackFlow project suggested action was needed particularly on glass, plastics and to some extend metal packaging waste. But he said Valpak's programme would offer assistance across all material streams.
This research has provided the compliance scheme with a hit list of councils to target support, which suggests most support is needed in urban areas.
Mr Hindley said: “Yes, local authorities are doing well on recycling, but that is mainly in the more rural areas, where volumes of packaging are small. Our major work will be with metropolitan areas – not exclusively, but mainly. That said, we are also keen to work with groups of local authorities.”
Assistance
Mr Hindley said Valpak could assist with the development of recycling schemes, awareness campaigns and use producer responsibility revenue to support prices offered for collected material.
He explained: “We have our own Valient Recycling, but we have a range of reprocessors that would be able to help local authorities with markets for materials, using PRN (packaging waste recovery note) revenue to provide consistent prices for materials.”
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Direct support could also come in terms of funding for new recycling boxes or equipment and the use of Valpak's consultancy service. Support could even come for the development of new technology treatment plants, which Valpak also sees as important for separating packaging waste from the residual waste stream.
The compliance scheme is also keen to try new ideas, Mr Hindley added, for example working with religious and cultural leaders to bring the recycling message to various ethnic communities.
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