Although the government is still to commit itself to its proposed 58% target for 2001 it would appear that companies are now switching attention to maximising the number of PRNs they have for next year.
One of the three companies that has no more PRNs to sell for 2000 is understood to be St Regis, parent group of Severnside Recycling.
In common with reprocessors from plastics, glass, metals, wood and other sectors, attention is now focusing on the legislation which allows the reprocessors to issue PRNs for the year 2001 on material delivered in December.
But, the Environment Agency is aware of the potential for errors in the way reprocessors handle material over the next few weeks.
Senior agency official Peter Gaffney explained to letsrecycle.com the rules.
“We have issued rules for the last month of the year to help make the situation clearer. PRNs can be issued for material delivered from January 1 to November 30 this year up until December 31 2000. PRNs issued for material delivered from 1 to 31 December can be used in the year 2000 or transferred over to next year.”
He added that to make the system more secure, reprocessors will be asked to provide two sorts of PRNs this year. “In the past we have found some reprocessors issuing PRNs for November material for use in the following year. Now for example, if I had 10,000 tonnes of material for PRNs in January to November 2000 and I had only issued 9,000 PRNs, I would have to issue one PRN for the surplus 1,000.” The surplus PRN would be used an accounting and recording device.
Among reprocessors, the greatest hopes for 2001 come from the plastics sector. There some companies look back to the beginning of the PRN system and consider they were misled into investments which they have still not paid back because of the low value of PRNs.
One plastics company said there will be a shortage of PRNs in December as firms look ahead. “We expect January prices will go up. One of the problems we expect is that there will be a shortage of material to take in and while we would like to sell more PRNs we may not have them to sell.”
One polythene reprocessor confirmed a lack of material and said that low PRNs had not helped the sector develop markets to get more material in.
letsrecycle.com guide prices for PRNs have been revised upwards slightly in view of a firmer market.
Firms sell out ahead of expected PRN boom
“Sold out” signs have been put up by at least three of the UK’s larger issuers of PRNs as accredited reprocessors gear up for an expected PRN price boom in 2001.
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