Packaging Waste Recovery

House of Lords written question – answered at on 15 May 2002.

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Photo of Baroness Billingham Baroness Billingham Labour

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What the United Kingdom's performance was in 2001 against the recovery and recycling targets in the EC Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste.

Photo of Lord Whitty Lord Whitty Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The UK narrowly failed to meet the overall packaging waste recovery target in 2001 but met the overall recycling target and the material-specific recycling targets for all materials.

The recovery and recycling of packaging waste carried out in 2001 is as shown below.

Recovery and Recycling Carried Out in 2001 (UK)
UK re-processing Exported for Re-processing Re-processing for which no PRN/PERN issued PRN & PERN carried forward to 2002 Tonnes accepted for Recovery & Recycling UK
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.

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