Ministers will be told to forget about the current 19% recovery target for all packaging materials, and agree new material-specific targets based on current UK levels of recovery and also the demands of the European Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive.
UK material specific targets could therefore be moved from 19% across the board, closer to a 60% level for paper, 60% for glass, 50% for metals and 23% for plastics somewhere between 2004 up to 2008.
 ACP chairman John Turner |
This advice is likely to come from the Advisory Committee on Packaging (ACP), which advises the government on producer responsibility issues in packaging waste, when it presents its recommendations to ministers at the end of April 2003.
The committee's chairman, John Turner, explained that the committee would advise the government to look to longer-term targets, in order to provide more certainty to business and encourage more investment in the system.
“We've got to get away from the short-term one-year targets,” Mr Turner said. “We've got to get industry thinking on a longer basis – five year spaces, perhaps. We'll definitely be seeing targets increasing, and with a tighter market we should see PRN prices increase. Then there will be more confidence to invest because there will be more certainty in the industry.”
Mr Turner said the ACP would only aim to “re-tune” the UK's packaging waste system, rather than advise any radical changes, but as well as recommendations on future recovery targets, the committee's four task forces are also looking into some significant areas of concern for industry such as infrastructure needs, data transparency and regulatory enforcement.
Infrastructure
The ACP has been in talks with local authorities, reprocessors and collectors to work out the infrastructure needed to reach packaging waste targets and the best use of PRN funds to increase UK recovery capacity.
“We need to look at the mismatch between packaging targets and local authority Best Value targets,” Mr Turner said. “Local authorities tend to go for heavier materials – the green waste, the glass and the paper – because of their Landfill Directive requirements. But we need to find a way to encourage them to pick up some of the lighter packaging materials like plastics.”
The committee is looking at how kerbside systems might best make use of the domestic waste stream, since it is from householders that the majority of aluminium and steel packaging is sourced.
Enforcement
Reflecting concerns made recently by the Compliance Schemes' Working Group (CoSWiG) that there may be more PRNs coming onto the market, the ACP will be pushing for the tightening up of data reporting and is likely to ask the government to bolster the powers of regulatory bodies in tackling possible fraud in the system.
Mr Turner said: “We may be advising the government that the PRN mechanism and the accreditation process should be brought within the regulations. Currently, it is outside the packaging waste legislation, and therefore the accreditation process is not combined with any real penalties. The Accreditation process should be brought within the regulations so agencies have the powers to deal with misuse of the regulations.”
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