Unpackaging the budget

There was little in the budget to catch the attention of the waste community unless, like me, they are retired pasty eaters.  That may not be surprising since the latest IPSOSMori Issues Facing Britain poll shows that an historically low 2% of the population are now concerned about the environment and pollution.

Perhaps the most interesting thing was the confirmation of the new packaging recycling and recovery targets.

Several points are worth drawing out. The announcement is a justifiable vote of confidence in the Packaging Recovery Note (PRN) mechanism which has ensured that the UK has met its EU targets even in the tough conditions of 2008. The decision is also a helpful step back from the previous year when no increases were announced – probably because of a doctrinaire objection to “gold plating” EU Directives. Broader objectives seem to have come into play this time around, which should inject a new dynamism into the PRN market and, with the 5 year targets, some longer-term confidence.

So far so good, but it is a shame that the opportunity to innovate more was not taken.

Exposing exports

Although the PRN system has achieved its principal aim of allowing the UK to meet its obligations cost effectively, it has been less successful than originally hoped in supporting investment in domestic recycling infrastructure. The reasons are complex but a key one has been the ability to score material sent for export as recycled. The Resource Association and a number of reprocessors have drawn attention to the potential unfairness of this recently. They argue that the material sent for export is significantly contaminated and therefore only a proportion is actually recycled. They have proposed that an export PRN (PERN) should be worth only 60% of a domestically generated PRN in order to create a level playing field for domestic reprocessors who can only score material actually recycled.

In principle they have a strong argument and their concern that, without reform, the higher plastics targets in particular will drive exports rather than increased domestic recycling is realistic. Two practical problems stand in the way of action being taken.

• First, to avoid a complaint of unfair competition they would need to produce evidence to back their claims as to the specific levels of contamination in exported material.
• Second, the Trans Frontier Shipment Regulations (TFSR) require that the level of contamination ought to be close to zero. Framing one set of regulations on the assumption that another is routinely being breached is a bit of a conundrum. But it needs to be addressed; perhaps by stricter enforcement of the TFSR.

Glass half full

One important innovation did emerge. The target for glass will, for the first time, require a significant proportion of the PRN evidence to come from remelt rather than aggregate uses. From a carbon point of view that is a sensible reform since it is clear that use of crushed glass as aggregate offers little if any environmental benefit.

This is one example of how, by setting the targets differently, the system can be fine-tuned to deliver other desirable outcomes. The Government could have gone further and set the targets for most materials to favour collections from households and small businesses. This would have the effect of pushing money towards local authorities, and would encourage them to  expand the recycling collections they offer to these groups.

Such a preference would recognise that the growth in recycling to meet the new targets can only come from those sources – since material from back of store and bigger businesses is largely sewn up. It would also start to address the subsidy that council tax payers effectively give packaging producers, as councils that have invested in improved but more costly collections have – largely – failed to get full value for the additional packaging material, either because they have done inappropriate deals with their contractors or because individually they lack effective bargaining clout.

Meanwhile, some better news on packaging. According to a Food and Drink Federation survey, half of consumers have noticed reductions in packaging and two thirds of them have noticed increased information about recycling it. A properly functioning producer responsibility system can only help to encourage this trend.