Packaging Waste Recovery (Hansard, 15 May 2002)

§ Lord Whitty

The UK narrowly failed to meet the overall packaging waste recovery target in 2001 but

Recovery and Recycling Carried Out in 2001 (UK)
	UK re-processing	Exported for Re-processing	Re-processing for which no PRN/PERN issued (inc in (1))	PRN & PERN carried forward to 2002	Tonnes accepted for Recovery & Recycling UK
	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)
Paper	1,851,505	179,439	25,895	83,064	2,030,944
Glass	696,578	39,016	17,036	29,273	735,594
Aluminium	25,869	3,161	1	821	29,030
Steel	141,343	136,736	3,051	8,365	278,079
Plastic	203,149	66,813	6,077	10,506	269,962
Wood	573,951		4,985	23,742	573,951
Alt.evidence	30,741				30,741
Total recycling	3,523,136	425,165	57,045	155,771	3,948,301
Efw	513,939		913	24,986	513,939
Total	4,037,075	425,165	57,958	180,757	4,462,240

Article 6(1) of the EC Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste 94/62/EC set the following targets:

Between 50 per cent and 65 per cent recovery

Between 25 per cent and 45 per cent recycling

15 per cent recycling of each material.

The UK performance against the targets is shown below.

UK Performance against 2001 Directive Targets
Material	Target	Performance
Paper	15%	53%
Glass	15%	33%
Aluminimum	15%	24% 'metals' 35%
Steel	15%	37% 'metals' 35%
Plastic	15%	16%
Wood	15%	57%
Total Recovery	50%–65%	47.9%
Total Recycling	25%–45%	42%

The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997 (as amended) and parallel legislation in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland implement these targets in the UK. The regulations place recovery and recycling obligations on producers to enable the UK to attain the directive recovery and recycling targets. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the Environment Agency have reported that one compliance scheme and a number of individually registered businesses failed to meet their tonnage recovery obligations under the packaging regulations—a total shortfall of 263,832 tonnes against a combined total obligation of 823,003 tonnes.