U.K.’s war on packaging waste
Posted May 29, 2007
Officials in the United Kingdom set regulations requiring business and industry to recover at least 60 percent of the country’s packaging waste and recycle 55 percent to 80 percent of waste, by December 2008. European packaging waste recovery targets are revised every five years under the 1994 European Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste.
The measure is considered to be in the hands of producers, meaning it is up to packaging producers to meet the costs of achieving these targets.
Companies that handle more than 50 tons of packaging each year and have an annual turnover of more than a £2 million (approximately $4 million) are affected by the regulations.
In November 2005, the British government announced its revised targets for the recovery of packaging waste from 2006 to 2008 and set new targets for 2009 and 2010. The revisions included consultation with industrial leaders.
Britain’s 2008 recovery targets include approximately 68 percent for paper, 74 percent for glass, 33 percent for aluminum, 59 percent for steel, 25 percent for plastic, and 21 percent for wood. The overall recovery target is 68 percent, with 92 percent of recovery achieved through recycling.
These packaging recovery targets determine how much material accredited reprocessors must handle each year, thereby issuing the relevant packaging waste recovery notes (PRNs) for legally obligated packaging producers to purchase. PRNs are evidence for that packaging companies buy from accredited reprocessors to meet their legal targets.
These changes were made for two main reasons, according to Letsrecycle.com. First, new data suggested that previous estimates of the amount of packaging waste in the waste stream – on which the targets were calculated – were inaccurate. This has led to targets for glass and plastics streams being raised from the previously published targets.
In addition, target revisions were needed because the United Kingdom’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) decided that companies using leased packaging and companies with a franchise structure must also pay for a share of packaging waste recovery, according to Letsrecycle.com.
With more companies added to the UK's producer responsibility system, those businesses already covered by the system need pay for a slightly lower share of the UK's efforts to meet the European recovery targets of 2008, leaving overall targets for recovery among paper, aluminum, steel, and wood slightly lowered.
Along with changes to the recycling and recovery targets, DEFRA has also made changes to the minimum recovery by recycling remit for producers, meaning the amount of the overall recovery target to be achieved by recycling materials has been as much as 3 percent a year.
The European Union’s targets in 2008 include an overall recovery of 60 percent, overall recycling of 55 percent, and material-specific recycling for paper (60 percent), glass (60 percent), metals (50 percent), plastic (22.5 percent) and wood (15 percent).