The Agency has confirmed to letsrecycle.com that 16 of the 20 compliance schemes registered in England have complied with their recycling obligations for packaging waste in 2004.
The confirmation came following the passing of this month's deadline for compliance schemes to submit evidence that they have bought sufficient evidence to meet their members' packaging regulations requirements for 2004.
The Agency released the public register of compliance schemes, but stressed it showed only the “progress of assessments so far”.
Unable to comment on the reasons why four schemes have not yet had their assessments completed, an Agency spokeswoman could say only: “We are still in the process of assessing end of year returns from compliance schemes.”
The four compliance schemes registered with the Agency that have yet to have their assessments completed include two schemes run by major waste management companies, Onyx-run Onyxpak and Cleanaway's Cleanapak.
As well as Onyxpak and Cleanapak, two smaller schemes are still to have their assessment completed by the Environment Agency, Surrey-based scheme Paper Collect and Doncaster-based Betapak.
The Public Register states that 34 producer companies that registered their packaging obligations directly with the Agency, independently and not via compliance schemes, are also yet to have their assessments completed. These include Future Publishing – publisher of consumer magazines including Total Film – and Netto Foodstores.
Obligations
Under the packaging waste regulations, companies involved in the packaging supply chain must pay for their share of reaching UK targets for the recycling and recovery of packaging waste. This obligation is carried out by purchasing sufficient packaging waste recovery notes (PRNs) which are issued by accredited reprocessors against packaging waste received for recycling or recovery.
The purchase of PRNs provides packaging waste reprocessors with revenue to expand recycling capacity to ultimately reach European recycling targets set for 2008 under the Packaging Directive. Obligated companies can buy sufficient PRNs to meet their obligations themselves, or become members of compliance schemes, who then buy sufficient PRNs on their behalf.
The compliance schemes still to be assessed include major household names as members. Cleanapack includes The Body Shop, Hugo Boss, Revlon, Samsung, SMEG, Superdrug and Toyota as members. Onyxpak includes Asda, Boots, Ford, Halfords, Panasonic, Reebok and Vauxhall.
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Members of the compliance scheme Paper Collect include Camelot Group plc, the company that runs the national lottery.
Data released by Defra earlier this month revealed that the UK had met its national business targets for packaging waste recovery, but failed to meet key recycling targets during 2004 (see letsrecycle.com story). Two compliance schemes registered in Scotland are under discussion with SEPA concerning their compliance in 2004 (see letsrecycle.com story).
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