SEPA also noted that Wastepack only bought 180,000 PRNs compared to the 415,000 it required. But as only 57,000 PRNs and export PRNs were left available Wastepack could not have acquired enough.
The announcement came this afternoon from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency which regulates Wastepack, which is registered in Scotland.
A statement from SEPA said that it has completed its compliance assessment of the Wastepack Group Ltd. It states: “Having carefully balanced all the issues, SEPA has concluded that Wastepack, in 2001, has failed to take 'reasonable steps' to recover
and recycle packaging waste under the Producer Responsibility
Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997. However, in the
circumstances, SEPA considers that this failure is not enough to
warrant exercising its powers to give notice of deregistration. A
formal warning letter will be issued.”
Analysis
SEPA explains that Wastepack's market analysis in 2000 led the scheme to believe that by 2001 there would be a shortage of materials available for recovery and that the statutory system would be unable to deliver enough evidence of compliance to allow all parties to meet their obligations. The statement says that Wastepack then concluded that “other activities would be necessary in order to fulfill the 'reasonable steps' requirement under the Regulations. Accordingly, they proposed to adhere to the statutory compliance system to the extent it was available (the purchase of PRNs) and also to invest directly in the domestic waste collection infrastructure.”
Infrastructure
Wastepack, says SEPA, “therefore began developing collection infrastructure projects in 2001, in addition to purchasing PRNs/PERNs. However by the end of the compliance year, they had not obtained enough PRNs/PERNs to meet their recovery and recycling obligations. Wastepack's recovery obligation was 415,000 tonnes, against which 180,000 tonnes of PRNs/PERNs were obtained.”
SEPA added that it is now estimated that 57,000 surplus
PRNs/PERNs remain for 2001. “These would not have been sufficient to
allow Wastepack to comply fully through the PRN system. However the
availability of such a surplus means that they have not adhered to the
statutory system to its fullest available extent.”
Complexity
Dr Campbell Gemmell, SEPA's Director of Strategic Planning, stated
that “In coming to this decision SEPA has taken into account all facts
surrounding the case, together with SEPA's enforcement policy. SEPA
has also noted the complexity of and some deficiencies in the system.
This requires further discussion with Government colleagues. Following
careful consideration SEPA has decided not to give notice of
deregistration as it believes that to do so would be a
disproportionate action under the circumstances”.
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