Five packaging producers are under investigation after failing to meet their producer responsibility obligations for 2012 under the Packaging Waste Regulations, the Environment Agency announced today (February 11).
The revelation came as the Agency published provisional packaging recycling data for the fourth quarter of 2012 showing that all other producer and schemes appear to have met their collective recycling obligations for the year.
The provisional data on the National Packaging Waste Database shows that despite concerns that many obligated producers and schemes would have struggled to meet the 2012 targets, especially in glass, performance in the fourth quarter of the year was very strong.
In glass, over 560,000 tonnes of glass was sent for reprocessing or export in the fourth quarter up from around 350,000 in each of the first three quarters of the year. The majority of the material was reprocessed in the UK.
The big rise in glass reprocessing was driven in large part by the high price of the glass PRN, which saw obligated producers and schemes paying around 75 a tonne for glass recycling evidence and around 35 a tonne feeding through as payment for glass to the waste and recycling sector (see letsrecycle.com story).
As a result, the Agency said that sufficient PRNs were issued in the 2012 compliance year to meet the total obligations of all registered producers.
All 44 UK approved compliance schemes have also indicated in their declarations of compliance that they have met their individual packaging recovery and recycling obligations. This follows an announcement last week by the UKs largest packaging producer compliance scheme, Valpak, that it had achieved compliance (see letsrecycle.com story).
Table showing packaging waste sent for reprocessing and export in 2012 (excluding tonnage carried over from 2011)
| Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Total (t) | Target (t) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paper | 826,019 | 799,230 | 821,801 | 875,934 | 3,322,984 | 2,580,674 |
| Glass | 362,609 | 350,536 | 351,034 | 561,521 | 1,625,700 | 1,665,360 |
| Al. | 16,401 | 14,030 | 18,170 | 13,828 | 62,429 | 59,819 |
| Steel | 94,011 | 78,932 | 77,182 | 107,612 | 357,737 | 354,819 |
| Plastic | 146,620 | 145,875 | 175,187 | 176,265 | 643,947 | 608,957 |
| Wood | 128,288 | 148,911 | 134,934 | 112,238 | 524,371 | 236,135 |
| Total recycl. | 1,573,948 | 1,537,514 | 1,578,308 | 1,847,398 | 6,537,168 | 6,490,540 |
| EfW | 206,488 | 187,371 | 206,972 | 220,158 | 820,989 | n/a |
|
Total recycl. & recov. |
1,780,436 | 1,724,885 | 1,785,280 | 2,067,556 | 7,358,157 | 6,971,412 |
Source:letsrecycle.com analysis of figures on the National Packaging Waste Database
Agency
In a statement accompanying the figures, the Agency said: The data… provides an indicative position on the amount of packaging waste received for recovery and recycling last year.
It shows that the total amount of PRN/PERNs which have been issued up to the end of the compliance period on the 31st January 2013 by accredited reprocessors and exporters was sufficient to meet the total obligation for all registered producers.
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All 44 UK approved compliance schemes have also indicated in their declaration of compliance that they have met their individual packaging recovery and recycling obligations.
Five producers have been identified as not having met their obligations and the relevant agencies are investigating.
The final data will be published in early April 2013.
More on this story to come.
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