The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said today that the investigation will initially concentrate on the wood reprocessing sector, since the tonnages involved have a greater impact on UK packaging recovery figures than in other materials.
Extrapolated 2002 figures appear to show that UK reprocessors recycled 831,390 tonnes of packaging wood waste – 82.4% of the total wood waste in the waste stream. This tonnage is 104.5% of the total reported wood obligation for UK companies under the packaging regulations.
The reported 2002 figures represent a huge jump from the 573,951 tonnes of wood waste recycled in 2001 – 57% of the total waste stream.
The DEFRA investigation will be carried out in conjunction with the devolved administrations as well as the three packaging waste regulators – the Environment Agency, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the Northern Ireland Environment and Heritage Service. The investigation team is to visit 51 of the wood reprocessors accredited in 2002.
A statement from DEFRA said: “The exercise will seek to identify any weaknesses in the existing arrangements by examining the robustness of existing recording and monitoring systems and audit trails adopted by wood packaging waste reprocessors to manage the allocation and issue of PRNs.”
The government has not ruled out looking into other packaging materials following the wood investigation – it is thought that plastic could be another material in which PRNs may have been issued inappropriately.
Problems
The PRN issue raises real problems for the government as it attempts to determine 2004 packaging waste targets with a formal consultation expected in a few weeks' time.
Experts have calculated that wood reprocessors will have to recycle 851,364 tonnes of material to reach the 2008 European targets currently being proposed. This is only 20,000 tonnes more than the reported 2002 figure.
Unless the government decided to raise UK minimum targets for wood packaging higher than European targets, wood PRN prices could continue to remain low, killing investment in the wood recycling sector. There may be an argument for UK wood targets to be higher than European targets, however, since the extra recycling could be put towards the overall recycling target.
Michael Tracey, chairman of the Wood Recyclers' Association, told letsrecycle.com that tackling the issue of the inappropriate issuing of PRNs was of utmost importance for the wood sector.
He said: “We have already met with DEFRA to discuss the issue, and we welcome the government's action in this area.”
For information on the packaging recovery note (PRN) system see the letsrecycle.com legislation section.
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