Export controls tightened within packaging regulations

The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2007, which came into force on March 16, are mainly an attempt to consolidate previous changes to the packaging producer responsibility regulations.

” Many people will want to know why the government are being so timid. “
– Greg Barker MP There are also some technical changes that attempt to cut red tape in the system that makes the packaging supply chain contribute towards the recycling of packaging waste.

And, the new regulations give the new electronic transfer system (see letsrecycle.com story) for recycling evidence – known as packaging waste recovery notes (PRNs) – a legal footing.

Exporters
Addressing the secondary legislation committee within the House of Commons, Defra minister Ben Bradshaw explained to fellow MPs that the regulations would act to prevent exporter companies that have been found guilty of illegally shipping waste abroad from claiming funds from producers by selling them export-PRNs (PERNs).

Mr Bradshaw said of the new regulations: “They will give the environment agencies the power to refuse accreditation as exporters to businesses that have committed, for example, transfrontier shipment of waste regulations offences.”

The new conditions of accreditation under the 2007 regulations also now require exporters to name the final destination reprocessor for the material, not just the middle-men receiving packaging waste before sending it on elsewhere.

The minister for local environment quality explained: “Otherwise, an exporter cannot comply with the packaging waste directive requirement that states that a recovery and/or recycling operation, if undertaken outside the EU, must be undertaken in conditions broadly equivalent to those inside the EU.”

Targets
During the debate on the Statutory Instrument bringing in the regulations, Conservative environment spokesman Gregory Barker expressed concern that the regulations did not adjust the recycling targets previously set for packaging waste. “This would have been an ideal opportunity to set more ambitious targets for the reuse and recycling of packaging,” Mr Barker said.

He also criticised Defra for the various target changes that have been seen in the packaging waste system, suggesting that the current set will not allow the UK to meet its Packaging Directive targets.

The MP for Bexhill and Battle said: “Many people will want to know why the government are being so timid.”

Wood
Responding to a question about the relatively low recycling target for wood, Mr Bradshaw revealed some of the thinking behind the forthcoming English waste strategy, that Defra now sees the burning of wood as better than recycling.

“A life-cycle analysis of wood shows that it is better in overall environmental terms to burn it for energy than to recycle it. Some of the life-cycle analyses of different materials that we have carried out have thrown up some quite interesting things,” Mr Bradshaw said.