While the ACP did not propose any major changes to the producer responsibility system, which would have required a change in legislation, its suggestions included moving the point at which recycling evidence could be issued for steel packaging to an earlier point in the supply chain. However, it is understood that such moves were deemed unfair to those who had already complied.
“Encouraging”
In the letter, the EA claimed that the latest reprocessing and export figures, published on July 22 on its National Packaging Waste Database, showed an “encouraging indication” that the amount of steel being recycled or recovered had increased in quarter two (88,364 tonnes) compared to quarter one (57,941 tonnes). The improvement is understood to stem in part from the rising value of the steel PRN, which is currently subsidising recycling to the tune of around £80 a tonne.
However, when compared to the latest business targets for steel – which depend on how much packaging is placed on the market – the figures show that the performance still falls behind the 89,892 tonnes needed each quarter for UK businesses to comply – and that a vast improvement will be needed later this year in order to overcome the shortfall. Annualised figures, including carry-over from 2008, suggest that the UK could be short by as much as 66,960 tonnes based on performance so far.
As a result, some schemes told letsrecycle.com that the UK was “not out of the woods yet” – both in terms of meeting its business targets for steel and European targets for metals, which require that 50% of metals (both aluminium and steel) are recycled from the end of 2008 onwards.
Apparently conscious of this, the Agency advised schemes in its letter to take “prompt and corrective action” if they anticipated that their current arrangements would not be sufficient to ensure compliance – reminding obligated parties that they would still be expected to comply with their 2009 obligations in full and on time.
Carly Chambers, producer responsibility regulatory services manager for the EA, said: “As a result of the concerns about the availability of steel evidence during 2009, a number of options were put forward by the Advisory Committee on Packaging (ACP). These have been considered by the Minister, who considered the benefits and risks of each option and concluded that no changes should be made to the system.
“Defra has agreed with the ACP to continue to monitor the situation with regards to the reprocessing of steel packaging waste.”
“Schemes and direct registrants should keep their plans under review and take prompt corrective action if they anticipate their current arrangements will not be sufficient to ensure compliance,” she added.
Data
Commenting on the quarter two data in general, several compliance schemes told letsrecycle.com that, with the exception of steel and possibly the general recycling obligation, they believed that the UK was likely to meet both its business and European targets.
Aluminium is particular was deemed to have performed particularly well, suggesting that there could be a significant surplus to carry over into 2010.
| Material | Carry over for 2008 | Q1 2009 (tonnes) | Q2 2009 (tonnes) | Annualised 2009 performance | 2009 business targets as of August 12 |
|
Paper |
154,983 |
752,638 |
764,575 |
3,189,409 |
2,496,027 |
|
Glass |
66,836 |
403,100 |
397,333 |
1,667,702 |
1,675,271 |
|
Aluminium |
2,237 |
13,530 |
16,504 |
62,305 |
55,666 |
|
Steel |
8,091 |
57,941 |
88,364 |
300,701 |
367,661 |
|
Plastics |
28,076 |
148,258 |
129,311 |
583,214 |
509,552 |
|
Wood |
15,047 |
206,973 |
197,948 |
824,889 |
214,272 |
|
Total Recycling |
275,270 |
1,582,440 |
1,594,035 |
6,628,220 |
6,360,483 |
|
Total Recovery |
275,470 |
1,702,400 |
1,711,442 |
7,103,154 |
6,830,861 |
Source: letsrecycle.com analysis of figures from the National Packaging Waste Database
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