Slightly higher packaging recycling targets for next year are widely expected to be announced shortly by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
However, it is understood that the department is under pressure from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) to minimise the burden the targets place on business – with the possibility that they could be kept as they are.
Targets have only been set until the end of 2010 and the government has not yet revealed how it is planning to proceed next year, despite a consultation in March proposing to raise targets each year between 2011 and 2020.
While some were concerned that no targets would be set, the head of producer responsibility at Defra, Judicaelle Hammond, confirmed last month that there will be targets for 2011 and that proposals were merely awaiting ministerial sign off.
She also indicated that the government would make an announcement in relation to all aspects of the consultation – also including technical changes and ways to make the PRN system more transparent (see letsrecycle.com story).
Now, all eyes are waiting for the final decision which will determine how much investment goes into packaging recycling over the next few years.
The general expectation amongst industry is that the targets will go up – albeit it by a very small margin. Targets for two years which are broadly in line with the consultation are thought most likely, because they would give ministers more time to look at the longer-term direction of packaging policy as part of the wider waste policy review.
This is with the possible exception of plastics and aluminium, where the targets proposed in the consultation have proved controversial and could potentially be revised downwards.
Burden
The difficulty Defra faces is in keeping the burden on businesses to a minimum during a time of economic downturn.
BIS has reportedly put pressure on the department not to hold back businesses in any way and this could potentially lead to the targets being kept the same.
The UK has already met the minimum target to achieve 60% of recycling by the end of 2008 as set out in the European Packaging Waste Directive. This means that there is no legal imperative to increase packaging recycling levels.
However, one industry insider said he still believed the targets would be raised as the directive and targets are due to be reviewed in 2014 and because the system contributed to producers' corporate social responsibility at a very low cost.
He added that rising packaging recycling levels also meant that a small increase in targets could be met without any year-on-year increase in cost.
He said: “I think the targets have to increase. There is a massive consumer and environmental NGO interest in the recovery of packaging materials. I don't think retailers will be saying they don't want to increase the targets.”
Glass
Alongside target levels, issues to be decided include whether the glass target will be split based on the end use of the recovered material as per the original consultation.
This is because recycling glass back into re-melt applications such as bottles has a significantly higher carbon saving than recycling the material into non-remelt applications such as road aggregates. Any change in this area could have a dramatic impact on the glass recycling landscape – and provide an indirect incentive for councils to collect glass separately from other materials (see letsrecycle.com story).
A spokesman for Defra said he could not say when any announcement would be made regarding the targets but industry figures told letsrecycle.com that they are expecting an announcement “soon”.
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