LARAC – the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee – was responding to a report calling for councils to be set materials-based recycling targets to improve packaging waste recycling levels in the UK (see letsrecycle.com story).
”Any material-specific targets should be placed on the obligated parties within the packaging industry, who they were initially designed for “
– Andy Doran, LARAC chair
The Committee said that the report, carried out by Forum for the Future and funded by packaging producer Tetra Pak, was “based on some poor analysis of the current situation”. The report suggested that the current weight-based targets mean councils are prioritising heavier materials like green waste and paper, rather than lighter packaging materials.
LARAC chair Andy Doran said: “While the report has made a thorough assessment of the state of packaging recovery in the UK, I don't think its recommendations will be received with much enthusiasm by many in local government and other sectors.”
Councils should not be forced to collect packaging waste for recycling, LARAC believes, because the packaging waste targets are producer responsibility measures. It said that while statutory performance standards “may have a place within the UK”, local authorities want the flexibility to meet their statutory recycling targets how they see fit.
But, the Committee suggested that packaging producers could provide funding for councils to collect packaging waste if they require packaging waste materials such as plastic bottles and aluminium cans, which arise in the household waste in greater quantities than the industrial waste stream.
Regulations
LARAC said: “The material-specific targets that currently exist within the packaging regulations could be amended to require producers – the responsible parties for packaging waste – to recover a certain percentage of their obligation from the household waste stream.
“LARAC believes that this is preferable to imposing further targets on local authorities,” it added.
So far, much of the packaging needed to meet the recycling targets in the packaging regulations has come from the commercial and industrial waste streams with “little or no impact” on household waste recovery, the Committee said. This “in part has contributed to the acknowledged low level of recovery of some packaging materials within local authorities.”
Mr Doran said: “What we don't need now is an additional set of material-specific targets that would constrain local authorities' flexibility to work within their local BPEO. Any material-specific targets, if needed, should be placed on the obligated parties within the packaging industry, who they were initially designed for.”
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