Geoff Hill, chairman of the Confederation of Paper Industries' recovered paper campaign PaperChain, warned that packaging waste recovery note (PRN) revenues dropped by 53%, while investment from export PRNs (PERNs) fell by 70% between 2002 and 2003.
The sector received just over 24 million in revenue in 2003 from the issuing of PRNs to businesses obligated to pay for recovery of their share of the UK's packaging waste under the 1997 regulations, as well as 1.7 million from PERNs. However, this represented a huge drop from the 51.7 million PRN money and 5.7 million PERN money received in 2002.
The drop was caused by the price of PRNs falling from about 30 a tonne in 2002 to as little as 5 a tonne in 2003 (see letsrecycle.com price archive). This, in turn, had been brought about through the government's decision to keep recovery targets for 2003 the same as those in 2002, a decision taken because of uncertainty at a European level surrounding the setting of new targets under the Packaging Directive.
Depressing
Mr Hill said he believed the figures made for depressing reading. He said: “The money generated by the PRN system was intended to develop a more sophisticated recycling infrastructure but the reality is that the fall in RPN revenue has meant this hasn't happened.”
In the year 2003, the paper packaging sector recycled 65% of paper packaging waste reported by businesses obligated under the regulations. While this performance means that the material-specific packaging waste recovery targets for paper will not be difficult, traditionally paper PRNs are important for use towards the UK's overall packaging waste recovery targets (see UK targets report) .
PaperChain's warning followed the release of the latest packaging waste recovery figures from Defra at the end of July, which showed a significant increase in the amount of packaging waste requiring recovery under the regulations (see letsrecycle.com story) .
The data showed that the paper industry remains by far the largest collector and recycler of packaging in the UK, responsible for 51% of the packaging recovered and recycled in 2003.
Accreditation
PaperChain added a further warning concerning the number of paper reprocessors accrediting with the Environment Agency so they could issue PRNs. It said the number of accredited paper reprocessors issuing PRNs dropped by 25% in 2004, although the number of accredited exporters issuing PERNs for paper packaging increased by 14%.
Some paper packaging waste reprocessors have said that the accreditation process that a reprocessor must go through in order to issue PRNs is not worth the revenue received for those PRNs when prices are as low as those seen in 2003.
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