Speaking at the letsrecycle.com Live! event yesterday near Coventry, the senior Defra official was commenting on the reprocessing data for the first quarter of 2006, which suggested reprocessing levels were strong across the board for packaging waste materials.
” PRNs don't just grow, they don't just appear “
– Sheila McKinley, Defra
But Mrs McKinley reminded audience members including reprocessors, packaging producers and compliance schemes that the data was provisional and that there certainly could be some discrepancies in the data.
She particularly pointed towards the plastics and aluminium areas. She said that while there had been some reports that reprocessors had done very well last year to meet targets, that the situation hadn't yet been fully confirmed.
Mrs McKinley, who has been a central figure in the setting up of producer responsibility for packaging over the last 10 years, warned that with the early years of the system now out of the way, it will no longer be as easy for packaging producers to meet their recovery targets.
However, she said a recent exercise in Defra to scrutinise operational plans led officials to think that producers had lost sight of the central “polluter pays” part of the packaging waste recovery note (PRN) system of producer responsibility.
She said some businesses now believe that their obligation is just to “buy PRNs” rather than make sure enough recycling is being carried out to meet their targets.
Responsibility
If insufficient recovery takes place to meet targets, and producers cannot get hold of enough PRNs to comply with the legislation, it is not Defra's responsibility, she pointed out.
Mrs McKinley said: “I have been rung up to ask what I will do if there aren't enough PRNs – but it's not my responsibility. This is producer responsibility, it is for producers to make sure enough recycling is happening to meet their targets.
“Nobody is saying that a producer must go out and buy a truck and collect packaging waste, but we are saying that they must make sure there is sufficient collections going on to generate their PRNs,” she explained.
She added that the only sure way to avoid huge increases in PRN costs – as was seen last year in the metals stream – was in planning ahead. “PRNs don't just grow, they don't just appear,” she said.
Mrs McKinley cited last year's “Pack Flow” report, which suggested that to meet the Packaging Directive's recycling targets in 2008, about 300,000 tonnes more packaging waste would have to be collected from households.
Local authorities
The Defra head of producer responsibility said operational plans for producers and compliance schemes would increasingly have to show how they are working with reprocessors and local authorities to increase capacity and collection infrastructure.
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She suggested there could soon be requirements to show how collection infrastructure is being developed in specific materials, and new relationships were needed to drive the collection of material from the household waste stream.
That meant packaging producers and compliance schemes will have to engage with local authorities, she said.
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