While not part of the government's recent consultation paper, there have been criticisms of the packaging waste recovery note (PRN) system because investment is going mainly to the processing side of recycling. Meanwhile, much of the difficulty in increasing UK packaging recycling rates is that there are not sufficient collections from the domestic waste stream.
The UK badly needs to recycle more packaging from the household waste stream, particular in problem areas like glass and aluminium, to reach European recycling targets for 2008.
DEFRA's consultation paper, released in July 2003 (see letsrecycle.com story), revealed: “The government agrees that, if the UK is to have any chance of meeting these targets, particularly in glass (where an uplift is needed from 34% to 60%) but also in aluminium, we need to start now, so that obligated parties, in particular, working with the materials organisations, local authorities and the reprocessing industry can plan and set in place the necessary investment to deliver the required increases in performance on time.”
Council Tax pressures
There are known to be concerns within government at the high levels of Council Tax at the moment and the possible rises required to meet budgetary shortfalls.
With the need for councils to reach statutory recycling targets forming a significant component of that pressure on council budgets, it is thought that the government could be working on some other way of funding local authority recycling collections.
It has been suggested to letsrecycle.com that packaging waste producer responsibility may be an area the government could seek to exploit to boost local authority funding.
ACP
Before the packaging waste consultation paper was issued, the government's Advisory Committee on Packaging had recommended that as well as putting PRN funding into reprocessing capacity, funding should go towards collection and sorting systems as well as local authority waste awareness programmes.
In its letter to ministers, ACP chairman John Turner said: “Much of the additional material will have to come from the domestic waste stream and unless many more local authorities move into separate or co-collection of all packaging materials and we make best use of those already in operation, the UK will not meet its targets.
He added: “There needs to be some new thinking…The committee believes that there needs to be a rapid improvement in the coordination of these activities and much more alignment between the objectives of government, local authorities and industry. Deployment of central funds and the flow of industry funds must be better and more effectively targeted.”
The ACP's report said it believed only about 50 authorities were currently collecting glass from the doorstep, and that this would have to be increased by a further 80 if UK targets were to be met.
Principle
Suggestions by the ACP that the UK should introduce local authority packaging waste collection targets have been widely criticised by the local government sector (see letsrecycle.com story) for going against the “polluter pays” principle. However, if PRN funds go to local authorities to back such targets up, the polluter, in the form of obligated companies, would be paying.
It is thought that DEFRA's recent multi-million pound funds, including the 135 million fund currently on offer to English councils, may not go on indefinitely. Therefore, it is thought entirely logical that in order for the UK to reach its European packaging waste targets, PRN funding will need to go to local authority collections.
Local authorities who have benefited from DEFRA funding hand-outs in the past, such as the 140m recycling fund, have told letsrecycle.com that they cannot see how they will be able to continue those schemes beyond the funded periods, but that “DEFRA can't afford to let these schemes stop”.
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