The “Pack Flow” report looked into how much packaging waste is in the UK waste stream and what is the likelihood of the UK meeting its European packaging recycling requirements for 2008.
” In large metropolitan areas, the amount of packaging coming out of the household waste stream is relatively low.“
– Andrew Simmons, Recoup
The project has been led by compliance scheme Valpak and various materials recycling organisations. It suggests a shortfall in the amount of recycling that is being carried out on present trends compared to what is needed to reach the targets of the EU Packaging Directive.
The report has already influenced government thinking, having been submitted to Defra shortly before it issued a consultation putting forward tougher packaging waste recovery targets in the run up to 2008 (see letsrecycle.com story).
Commenting on the report's findings, Andrew Simmons, the chief executive of one of the organisations behind the report – Recoup – said over half of all packaging waste is being recycled in the UK, and that there were now “lots of good markets for this material”. However, he said a lack of collections was now the key problem in meeting EU targets for 2008.
Household
Much of the shortfall must be made up by collecting more packaging from the household waste stream, Mr Simmons said this week. A key recommendation in the report was to focus producer responsibility money – through the packaging waste recovery note (PRN) system – on increasing packaging waste collections in local authority areas.
Mr Simmons said there needs to be more of an alignment of local authority and Packaging Directive targets, as well as a particular focus on metropolitan areas, where there are large sources of untapped packaging waste.
“In large metropolitan areas, the amount of packaging coming out of the household waste stream is relatively low compared to the amount coming out of the top performing councils for recycling, which tend to be in more rural areas,” he said.
The “Away from Home” market was also a key area needing development, he added, with a high proportion of lightweight packaging used by consumers outside the home in places like offices, transport hubs and leisure facilities.
Headline figures in Pack Flow report state that to meet the 2008 target a 13% increase needs to be achieved each year in the amount of packaging waste collected for recycling by councils. From the 978,000 tonnes currently collected each year, local authorities would have to get to an annual 1.7 million tonne collection figure by 2008, the report warns.
Recommendations
To achieve this, the report puts forward a number of recommendations to use producer responsibility revenue more effectively:
- Three-year collection contracts for local authorities
- PRN revenues used to support plans developed by regional or sub-regional groups of local authorities for collecting packaging waste
- More sharply targeted PRN funding for larger, urban-based local authorities to recover large “untapped” sources of packaging waste
- Reconsider waste strategy to make English local authorities responsible for collecting packaging in the “away from home” waste stream and review council recycling targets to encourage more packaging waste to be collected
- Provide financial incentives for householders to recycle packaging waste
- Make more use of recycling credits to engage third party collectors to collect packaging waste for recycling
- Strengthen Household Waste Recycling Act to require more materials to be collected from the kerbside by councils by 2010
- Adopt a national compliance strategy to strive towards more collections of plastic bottles from households
- Expand provision of materials recycling facilities in regions with shortage of sorting capacity for packaging waste.
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Other key recommendations within the Pack Flow report related to strengthening of the arrangements for packaging producers carrying out their obligations to recover packaging waste. The report called for non-criminal penalties for those organisations that do not meet their obligations – related to the tonnage of PRNs they fail to acquire in any one year.
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