In the two page letter, Mr Van Danzig alleges that according to figures released by the Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs, “someone purchased 220,000 PRNs last year that they did not need to meet their 2004 obligation.”
” Whoever bought all the evidence has, by their actions, caused the price of steel, plastic and aluminium PRNs to rise by up to 400%. “
– Barry Van Danzig, Wastelink
Mr Van Danzig said: “In doing this a shortage of supply in steel, plastic and aluminium PRNs has been created.”
According to the letter, these PRNs were not needed for the company that purchased the PRNs' 2004 compliance needs but were carried over into 2005.
Artificial
Mr Van Danzig believes that it is the artificial shortage which led to some schemes facing further assessment over 2004 obligations. And he said: “This caused some panic buying which pushed the price up in the last month of 2004.
The increased price of PRNs carried over into 2005 where further increases have seen prices reach as far as 75, prompting Mr Van Danzig to state that obligated companies face a potential 44 million increase in compliance costs.
The letter goes on to say: “Whoever bought all the evidence has, by their actions, caused the price of steel, plastic and aluminium PRNs to rise by up to 400%. By artificially creating a shortfall the “overbuyer” has set a trend running that is going to be hard to stop.”
Wastepack has written to the Office of Fair Trading as it believes the alledged overbuyer may have been in breach of OFT rules. It is also requesting that reprocessors should be made to act “fairly” and sell PRNs to compliance schemes that need them rather than allowing one person or scheme to overbuy their requirement.
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