Higher plastics PRN prices predicted by Valpak

That was the message from Duncan Simpson, sales and marketing manager at Valpak, who was speaking at a meeting of Associate Parliamentary Sustainable Resource Group in London yesterday (March 7).

At present, plastics PRNs sell for only around 5 a tonne.

Mr Simpson said The plastics targets proposed are controversial and manyin the plastics industry believe they are unachievable and costly. We think there will be a shortfall in this target but not to a huge extent enough so that plastics PRN prices rise to between 35 and 65 a tonne.

Rising

The proposals for tougher packaging recycling targets for plastics as well as aluminium and steel, alongside a new split target for glass, were launched for consultation by Defra in December 2011 (see letsrecycle.com story).

Mr Simpson said Valpak supported the idea of steadily rising targets between 2013 and 2017 because it would supports continued investment in packaging recycling.

Gently rising targets would be no better than flat targets, he said. Investment would shrink, PRN prices would remain flat and many would be paying more in administrative costs than in actually supporting recycling.

On the subject of steel, Mr Simpson said there was scope to raise the material-specific target for steel above the 76% business target proposed in the consultation to stimulate collections without major cost implications.

Glass

In the consultation, the government also proposes to split the packaging recycling target by end use. This would see the amount that can be achieved through aggregates to its 2009 level – approximately 650,000 tonnes.

Mr Simpson said he thought this was a good idea in principal but would only achieve a small percentage increase in the amount of glass going to remelt. He said: Valpak suggests a 1-2% a-year rise in the remelt target over the next five years or a gentle rise in the overall targets with no split over five years.

Summing up Valpaks position, Mr Simpson said: We agree with the governments preferred option 3a but would like them to review the targteson a regular, set a five year horizon of targets to help businesses plan and monitor performance on a regular basis, while not being afraid to adjust them based on research.