The system will become statutory law in the UK, pending parliamentary approval, while its enforcement and monitoring will be strengthened with a new Agency fee structure.
Commenting on the changes, environment minister Elliot Morley said: “We have accepted most of the changes proposed by the chairman of the Advisory Committee on Packaging. These are designed to tighten up the management of the packaging waste recovery system in the UK, including data provision, to ensure that it works more efficiently so that we can be confident of meeting the next Directive targets in 2008.”
However, Mr Morley said that the proposal in the consultation paper that obligations should be taken on leased and on internal supply packaging would not be brought into effect in 2004, but would be subject to further work with the intention of bringing them into effect in 2005.
Changes to the packaging waste recovery regulations are to include:
- The PRN system to be formally enshrined in UK law, including the approval of compliance schemes by the relevant minister and the accreditation of reprocessors to issue PRNs.
- Compliance schemes to be made legally responsible for their members' recovery and recycling obligations.
- Data system is to be improved, with simplified data forms which must be signed off by a company director.
- Increased level of monitoring of data from both obligated companies and reprocessors.
- Regulatory Agencies to be given greater powers to pursue scheme members for inaccurate data.
- Additional fees from group subsidiaries to cover data monitoring costs.
- “Special producer” provisions to be removed from the Regulations.
- Annual registration, data for submission of updated compliance plans to be January 31, to allow Agencies to check data before registration.
A new fee system is being brought in to cover the costs of the Agencies, with producers registering individually being charged 768, producers registering through a compliance scheme charged 558. Reprocessors and exporters issuing more than 400 tonnes worth of PRNs or export PRNS (PERNS) will be charged 2,590, with those issuing less than 400 tonnes worth of notes being charged 500.
Producers and schemes will also be liable to cost-recovery charges where data submissions have to be returned, corrected and re-submitted, and where schemes are late in registering.
Valpak
Commenting on the changes to the regulations, Valpak chief executive Jonson Cox welcomed the tightening of enforcement in the system and said that he hoped it would tackle the key problems of “free riders” and the standards needed for reprocessors.
But, Mr Cox told letsrecycle.com he was “surprised” at the new fees announced for obligated companies, because there was not enough of a disparity between the charge for companies registering through schemes and the charge for registering direct to the Agencies. The concern is that companies may be put off registering through a compliance scheme by such a move.
“It will be very unfortunate if that happens,” Mr Cox said, “but members get the benefit that they can outsource their legal liability for their recovery obligations by joining a compliance scheme.”
Biffpak
Biffpack, the compliance scheme run by Biffa Waste Services, also revealed concerns about the new fee structure, which it said did not reflect the work carried out by some schemes in ensuring producers report accurate data.
The scheme added: “We also have strong concerns over the reprocessor accreditation fees as we are aware of a number of small PRN producers for whom the fee structure will be simply uneconomical. We note the intention to introduce further charges for issues such as re-submission and would urge the government to clarify these as soon as possible.”
In its statement, Biffpack also applauded the tightening of the PRN system, the accreditation of reprocessors and the system's enforcement by the Agency.
It said: “Together with other measures, we believe this will do much to remove the opportunities for abuse of the system although we are disappointed that end of year PRN carry over has been maintained, as we believe this distorts the market.”
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