United Kingdom – In an attempt to bring its argument for a reform of the packaging recovery note (PRN) system to the fore, the British Plastics Federation (BPF) has written to the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) urging that it is ‘crucial to capitalise on the opportunity to improve the UK’s recycling infrastructure’.
Chairman of the BPF’s Recycling Group Roger Baynham hopes that bringing the matter to the attention of DEFRA Junior Minister Richard Benyon will convince UK officials that the country’s producer responsibility system should encourage reprocessing in the UK as opposed to the export of unprocessed waste. According to Mr Baynham, such steps are ‘fundamental’ to achieving recycling targets going forward.
‘The case is extremely compelling,’ he stated. ‘On the one hand, Corporate Social Responsibility programmes call for brand owners and retailers to incorporate more recycled materials in their products – yet as an industry we continue to remain over-dependent on exports which focus upon volume rather than upon quality of outputs.’
As Asian markets continue to weaken and are less able to absorb UK material, the BPF states that there is ‘a real danger that 2012 targets might not be met’. With quite challenging goals waiting not too far in the distance, the group is convinced there is only one likely outcome – ‘an escalation in PRN/PERN (packaging export recovery note) values, a significantly added cost for all in the supply chain right the way down to the retailer’.
Mr Baynham also highlights the concern that PERNs will ‘simply be used as a mechanism’ to subsidise exports to a point where such materials become competitive on world markets. High PRN/PERN values will most likely ‘incentivise unscrupulous players to pass off unobligated packaging as packaging waste, so the current system would become in effect a ‘cheater’s charter’’, he said.
For more information, visit: www.bpf.co.uk
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