More producer action over packaging waste expected

That is the suggestion of a taskforce set up to look at how to increase packaging recycling in the UK and who should pay for it.

At present, producers pay towards packaging recycling through the PRN system. They are set targets each year which they have to meet by purchasing packaging recycling evidence, or Packaging Waste Recovery Notes (PRNs). The remainder of the cost is borne by local authorities.

However, at a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Packagings Procuring and Delivering Services Taskforce on November 2 members suggested that local authorities may not be so inclined to increase recycling rates further in future as they were under significant financial pressure and had no specific recycling targets to meet going forward.

It was felt by the taskforce that targets focused on greenhouse gases would help with the achievement of packaging targets for aluminium and plastics but not necessarily other materials.

Meanwhile, provisions under the revised Waste Framework Directive which requires 50% of household waste to be recycled or composted by 2020 were not considered sufficientdrivers for councils on their own.

Direct

As a result, they suggested that packaging producers may need to work directly with councils in future to ensure their obligations under the packaging regulations are met.

In minutes from the meeting, the taskforce said: The removal of targets from local authorities may act as a lever for producers to take more direct action to ensure that their obligations under the Packaging Regulations are met.

A solution whereby both local authorities and producers benefit needed to be found. This could involve producers (through compliance schemes) working with local authority consortia to deliver packaging material.

At the meeting it was even suggested that some local authorities might cease to collect certain materials for financial reasons, prompting producers to instigate alternative collection schemes like those seen in Europe. However, this was deemed unlikely due to the pressure from constituents and the wishes of council members.

Those present at the meeting were: Chair Bob Lisney; Phillip Ward, director of local government services at WRAP; Judicaelle Hammond and Ian Atkinson from Defra; Adrian Hawkes, director of policy at Valpak, John Quinn from Northern Irish waste management group arc21, Lee Marshall from Powys county council; and, Steve Read, managing director of the Somerset Waste Partnership.

Somerset

Speaking to letsrecycle.com, Mr Read said that he had long argued that most of the funding that drives the collection of packaging from households was put in by local authorities and that there was scope for producers to do more.

He said: The PRN system has not been terribly transparent in the past and also in terms of money it has not been particularly significant.

He pointed to a scheme in Somerset whereby Marks and Spencer directly subsidises kerbside collections as an excellent example of where a producer was putting extra investment in(see letsrecycle.com story)and said this was something which could be replicated elsewhere.

He suggested that the PRN system should be made more flexible to allow companies such as M&S to gain credit for this kind of investment and said it could also provide a means for retailers to secure high-quality materials with which to boost the recycled content of new packaging.

However, he stressed that a lot would depend on what level the government set packaging recycling targets in future and that they would need to be challenging if they were to incentivise many producers to do more.