Market stability goal for proposed Welsh compliance scheme

Market development organisation the Wales Environment Trust is in talks with “an established compliance scheme” on the joint venture, which could operate from the financial year 2005/06.

Dr Keith Parry, chief executive of the Trust, told letsrecycle.com that the aim of the scheme was to provide local authorities with a fixed price for their collected packaging waste, reprocessors a guaranteed flow of packaging waste to recycle and obligated companies a fixed PRN price.

”We've talked to waste producers and local authorities, accredited reprocessors and obligated companies and each and every one of them is crying out for stability. “
– Dr Keith Parry, Wales Environment Trust
Under the packaging regulations, producers are responsible for meeting government-set recycling targets for the amount of packaging they place on the market. They demonstrate that they have complied with the regulations by purchasing the relevant amount of packaging waste recovery notes (PRNs) issued by accredited packaging waste reprocessors for every tonne of material recycled.

PRNs, as with collected material, is subject to market forces of supply and demand, so prices can vary dramatically. As a result, local authorities, reprocessors and waste producers can find making long-term budget plans difficult.

The Wales Environment Trust is looking to provide more stability in the system, Dr Parry said. The Trust is already in talks with packaging producers obligated under the packaging regulations as well as reprocessors and local authorities to set up the Compliance Wales organisation. Dr Parry said the proposed scheme had received a “warm response” so far.

Contracts
Other packaging waste compliance schemes in the UK already offer long-term contracts for the supply of materials to reprocessors and the purchasing of PRNs. But Dr Parry said that ideally, Compliance Wales would see contracts arranged that would fix prices for “all three sides of the recovery triangle” for periods of up to three or four years.

He explained: “We've talked to waste producers and local authorities, accredited reprocessors and obligated companies and each and every one of them is crying out for stability. With Compliance Wales, we want to provide that stability and also transparency in the prices agreed.”

But Dr Parry conceded that a more flexible approach in which prices were reviewed every six or 12 months might be demanded by local authorities, reprocessors or waste producers. As with other compliance schemes, obligated producers would be required to pay a membership fee, which would be set at a “reasonable” level, Dr Parry said.

The Trust is in talks with a possible partner, one of the existing packaging waste compliance schemes in the UK, Dr Parry confirmed. But, the identity of the possible partner will not be revealed for another few weeks, he said.

He added that the compliance scheme would not necessarily be only for organisations in Wales to join, it would depend on where there was interest or demand.