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Government packaging committee looks at plastics and PRNs

By Anthony Clark
Posted 13 August 2012

The UK Government’s Advisory Committee on Packaging (ACP) has finalised its report and both plastics and the PRN system get a special mention.

“It was a year of substantial input from many organisations as well as committee members,” said ACP chairman Bob Lisney. “Over the year the committee established four task groups covering market development, legislation, the sustainable supply chain and plastics.

“As a result, the report is well informed with evidence on future trends for packaging as well as the challenges in meeting new targets.”

The collection of plastics is a challenge because of the complexity of the range of products used, concluded the committee. As a result, the ACP considered the material in three core areas; bottles, rigid containers and films.

“Each has different issues in collection, sorting and markets to be resolved and we know that there is increasing public demand for more to be recycled as well as higher targets to be met by 2017,” explained Lisney.

According to the ACP, the plastics industry has been very positive about the challenge and its report provides a route map for bottles and rigids and recommends that more work is undertaken this year by an industry-led films group so that the ACP can be informed of the optimum routes for this material and the practicalities of collection.

Another key area for study was the burden of legislation and the structure of the PRN system.

“The legislation group has looked at ways of reducing the burden on industry, especially small businesses, and also at how to ensure that the obligations can be made more inclusive,” said Lisney. “It has also suggested that the PRN/PERN system be reviewed as there is evidence that there are differences that disadvantage UK based reprocessors.”

The committee has developed a work plan for the next 12 months, which is included in the report and which will contribute to the review of Producer Responsibility processes.

(See Hamish Champ's blog.)


Comment on this article.

Comments:

The PERN/PRN system seems designed to favour waste management companies and compliance providers, rather than the plastic industry. WMCs get title to waste plastic packaging which they collect so are in a position to decide on its disposition. I can't blame WMCs if they prefer to sell to a trader for prompt payment and a PERN, rather than participate in the UK recycling supply chain with the prospect of a PRN at some point. What I object to is the use of public money by Defra, which created the current system, to fund WRAP to trumpet its praises. This activity is detrimental to the interests of the UK plastic industry and should stop. Exporting waste plastic does little to support sustainability goals despite contrived claims to the contrary. The current system is all about meeting government targets, which sadly do not include targets for recycled content in packaging or UK recycling.

- 14 August 2012 - Peter Reineck

I agree with Bernard Chase's comments. Mixed plastic waste recycling will never be 'stand alone' economically viable. Even subsidised mixed plastic waste recycling will only scratch the surface of the ever-increasing problem; where is the market or such vast quantities of the stuff? What about the fact that by recycling the total of plastic doesn't actually go away but merely adds to the ever increasing amount of waste plastic in the world once its fit for purpose life comes to an end. So there are only 3 options i) incineration ii) reprocessing so fit for disposal and 3)reprocessing with a mind to controlled degradation ie biomass and methane for use as fuel. I notice incineration is gaining in favour because it is the cheapest option but maybe not in the long term if health issues are taken into consideration. Take your pick. I favour reprocessing into powder, and mixing with soil for disposal as the safest but it costs money, roughly 1.5 euros per person per year. Is that too high a price to have an effective solution, a cleaner environment? I think not.

- 13 August 2012 - david senior

It would have been better had the ACP developed an 'action plan' for plastics reprocessing, rather than a mere 'work plan' as the latter smacks of fiddling whilst Rome burns. Commingled collection of plastics has already effectively ruined quality and the prospect that household films such as laminates and degradables are shortly to be included can only add to plastics reprocessors woes. As distinct from waste plastic traders, UK plastics reprocessors have been highlighting for years both the absurdity of simple weight based recycling targets that deliver ever lower quality standards and the inequity of a PRN system that systematically disadvantages environmentally responsible processing at home whilst incentivising poorly policed exports of 'so called' plastics packaging waste. No matter, it all helps to meet the targets! Why has no one been listening all these years or is the truth so unpalatable that it has to be ignored? It is to be hoped, therefore, that by the time the ACP have completed their 'work plan' and it has actually been turned into some form of honest and constructive 'action plan' there will still be some economically self sufficient plastic reprocessors left in the UK to process what has been collected in order to meet the wildly optimistic plastic recycling targets set down in Defra's 5 year plan.

- 13 August 2012 - Bernard Chase

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