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Behemoth
Joined: 01 Dec 2004
Posts: 19023
Location: Leeds
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 Posted: Fri Oct 21, 05 8:44 am Post subject: Changes to packaging regulations announced |
 
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Department for The Environment, Food And Rural Affairs (National)
CHANGES TO PACKAGING REGULATIONS ANNOUNCED
Changes to packaging rules have been announced today that will mean that more packaging waste will be recycled and recovered and that there will be more businesses involved.
Among the changes announced today, Defra and the Welsh Assembly confirmed that leased packaging, such as pallets and crates, will now be fully subject to the regulations subject to Parliamentary approval.
Ben Bradshaw, Local Environmental Quality Minister, said that today's measures would spread compliance costs more equitably among businesses:
"The new measures announced today mean that, as well as ensuring that more packaging waste is being recycled and recovered, more businesses will be involved in increasing the UK's packaging waste recycling rate.
"This will spread costs more equitably among all the businesses involved and keep their individual recovery and recycling targets lower than they might otherwise be."
The UK has to meet new, higher recovery and recycling targets for packaging waste by 2008.
In order to meet that target, packaging laws require target levels of packaging waste recycling by all businesses that handle over 50 tonnes of packaging a year and with turnover in excess of £2 million a year.
To date the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations have succeeded in raising the recycling rate of packaging waste from around 27% in 1997 to just below 50% at the end of 2004.
Mr Bradshaw also confirmed that the some of the administrative and cost burden would be eased for smaller businesses following the proposal to simplify small businesses' data requirement.
A number of technical changes will also be adopted including the removal of the "reasonable steps" wording from the regulations.
Proposals to include packaging from franchise businesses were welcomed in consultation, but further details of the proposal are still under consideration in a later consultation, the outcome of which will be known shortly.
A summary of responses to the consultation paper on increasing the level of obligated tonnage can be found at https://www.defra.gov.uk or on the Welsh Assembly Government website https://www.countryside.wales.gov.uk.
For further information please contact Benjamin Winterton at Defra, Producer Responsibility Unit, Room 7/F8, Ashdown House, 123 Victoria Street, London SW1E 6DE.
In Wales, please contact Owen Venables at the Welsh Assembly, Waste Policy Branch, Cathays Park, Cardiff CF10 3NQ.
NOTE FOR EDITORS
Legislation
* The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997 (as amended) ("the packaging Regulations") set recovery and recycling targets on businesses that are 'producers' of waste packaging.
* This helps the UK to meet its recovery and recycling targets in the EC Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste 94/62/EC.
* Businesses and compliance schemes calculate their recovery and recycling targets based on the amount of packaging that it handles - this "obligated packaging" is reported each year to the relevant Environment Agency.
* Producers and schemes demonstrate that they have met their recovery and recycling obligations by purchasing Packaging Waste Recovery Notes (PRNs) and/or Packaging Waste Export Recovery Notes (PERNs) from waste reprocessors and exporters respectively. These PRNs and PERNs are issued in relation to tonnages of UK packaging waste delivered for reprocessing/exporting.
* New, higher recovery and recycling targets to be met by 2008 were set in the new Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive 2004/12/EC and the packaging Regulations were amended in 2003 (2003 SI No. 3294) to set the business targets necessary to enable the UK to meet these new Directive targets in 2008.
* The Packaging Waste Regulations have succeeded so far in:
raising the recycling rate of packaging waste from around 27% in 1997 to just below 50% at the end of 2004
enabling the UK to meet the Directive targets of at least 50% recovery, at least 25% recycling and at least 15% recycling of each material (In 2004, recovery and recycling together came to 55.5%)
In real terms, since the Regulations came into force, the total amount of packaging waste recovered and recycled has increased from 3.3 million tonnes in 1998 to almost 5.65 million tonnes
significantly increasing the level of packaging waste diverted from landfill, contributing to the Landfill Directive targets; in 2004, an additional 2 million tonnes of packaging waste was diverted from landfill compared with 1998.
contributing to the increase in recycling by local authorities, and thus to the targets in the Government's Waste Strategies.
The consultation
* One of proposals in the consultation was to obligate franchisors and similar businesses for the all the packaging handled by their franchisees. The Government proposes to narrow the scope of this proposal in light of comments about complexity and further discussion was taken forward in a later consultation on targets, the outcome of which will be known shortly.
* All other proposals in the first consultation will be taken forward including the removal of the "reasonable steps" wording.
* The following adjustments to proposals will be made as a result of responses from stakeholders -
* the estimate of additional tonnage to be brought in with the leased proposal has been reduced [see table 1 below]; targets will still be kept lower than they might otherwise have been;
* stakeholders supported the 'allocation' approach to simplify data for SMEs. This approach will be voluntary, but businesses that choose this option must continue to do so for 3 years;
* Estimated tonnages of leased packaging 2006-08
2006 2007 2008
Wood 73,675 83,713 93,480
Plastic 68,681 78,812 89,320
Steel 1,570 1,757 1,943
Total 143,926 164,282 184,903
* Total Tonnage of Packaging Reported by Obligated Businesses (UK), 2002-2005
2002 2003 2004 2005*
Paper 3,141,036 3,248,781 3,404,236 3,452,230
Glass 1,764,488 1,870,879 1,938,689 2,048,808
Aluminium 123,377 126,513 132,195 133,822
Steel 597,523 606,635 627,678 629,787
Plastic 1,517,556 1,612,904 1,739,517 1,814,352
Wood 799,633 800,093 837,075 870,693
Other 18,724 20,972 21,245 21,104
Total 7,962,337 8,286,776 8,700,635 8,970,796
Public enquiries 08459 335577;
Press notices are available on our website
https://www.defra.gov.uk
Defra's aim is sustainable development
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Mrs Fiddlesticks
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Behemoth
Joined: 01 Dec 2004
Posts: 19023
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Mrs Fiddlesticks
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