Defra is looking at proposals to level the playing field for domestic recyclers with exporters of waste under the packaging recovery note (PRN) system resource minister Dan Rogerson has revealed.
Speaking at a launch event for the Associate Parliamentary Sustainable Resource Groups report on waste exports yesterday (December 4), Mr Rogerson also confirmed that the proposed regulations to improve the quality of materials produced at materials recycling facilities will now be published in early 2014.
Packaging recyclers have long called for a reform of the PRN system, claiming that the current system provides an incentive for exporters of material.
Under the Packaging Regulations, packaging producers are set targets each year which they have to meet by purchasing PRNs, or their export equivalent, PERNs.
While the value of PRNs, is the same as PERNs, UK reprocessors can only claim them against material which is actually recycled, as opposed to all the material in export bales, including contamination.
Among the recommendations in APSRGs Exporting Opportunity? Putting UK Waste to Work at Home and Abroad report are measures to ensure that PERNs are only issued against 100% of the material that is recycled (see letsrecycle.com story).
PRNs
Mr Rogerson, who previously sat as co-chair of the APSRG and chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Packaging, said that addressing the issue is among his key aims in office, and confirmed that work is currently ongoing to examine the feasibility of reforms to the system.
He said: The first conversation I was keen to have in this role was on what we are doing about PRNs and PERNs. I have heard a lot about this in the past and the APSRG report outlines the lack of a level playing field which is not news to me.
Officials in the department are actively exploring proposals to even out that disparity. But, we have got to ensure that we are not anti-competitive and to keep our borders open for trade so the Environment Agency are looking at some of those proposals.
Quality
On the planned MRF regulations he added: As a department we are working hard on quality and we want to publish the MRF regulations as soon as we can, that is planned for early in the new year.
A consultation on the MRF Code of Practice was launched by the government in February (see letsrecycle.com story), and the regulations would require all MRFs over a certain size to measure the quality of their inputs and outputs.
The results of the tests would be made available to businesses buying material and those supplying MRFs and it is hoped that these measures would help to improve the quality of recyclate produced in UK facilities.
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