HC Deb 12 January 1998 vol 304 cc7-8W
Mr. Chaytor

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions which companies have(a) been registered and (b) been refused registration as accredited reprocessors for the purpose of issuing packaging waste recovery notes under the Producer Responsibility (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997. [22281]

Angela Eagle

The Environment Agency and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency are responsible for the accreditation of reprocessors under the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997. The Agencies register each site individually rather than registering companies, and the statistics following reflect this.

The most recent figures available from the Environment Agency, accurate for 24 December 1997, show that 48 sites have received accreditation, 64 have been refused and 2 are pending awaiting the modification of reprocessing and/or administration systems. The remainder, some 90, are still being processed.

The list of applications which includes their company names and the status of the site (agreed, refused or pending) runs to some thirty five pages. I have therefore placed a copy in the House of Commons Library.

Under the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997, there are three kinds of operation which are classified as reprocessing (definitions are taken from Directive 94/62/EC on packaging and packaging waste): recycling, ie "the reprocessing in a production process of the waste materials for the original purpose or for other purposes including organic recycling but excluding energy recovery"; organic recycling, ie "the aerobic (composting) or anaerobic (biomethanisation) treatment, under controlled conditions and using micro-organisms, of the biodegradable parts of packaging waste, which produces stabilized organic residues of methane"; energy recovery, ie "the use of combustible packaging waste as a means to generate energy through direct incineration with or without waste but with the recovery of the heat".

The rejection of an application is usually the result of one of the following situations:

  1. (i) the process concerned does not count as reprocessing as defined above;
  2. (ii) the site does not reprocess packaging waste;
  3. (iii) the site is not yet capable of reprocessing packaging waste.