Environment minister Michael Meacher has set new recovery and recycling targets for 2001 that are higher than previously indicated.


Under the Packaging Regulations, the new targets will be 56% for recovery and 18% for material specific recycling, replacing the original figures of 52% and 16%.



"The national targets for next year need to be seen as leading to higher targets, to sustain a tighter PRN [Packaging Recovery Notes] market," said Meacher.



"We need to avoid a repeat of the imbalance between supply and demand of reprocessing capacity that has preciously occurred."



The Government has also proposed a flat 460 registration fee for compliance schemes, regardless of size.
The flat fee will reduce the combined compliance scheme fees of Valpak''s members by 120,000.



"This is a much more logical step to take, as all compliance schemes do the same work for their members," said Mike Beard, director of marketing at Wastepack.



"We were opposed to any increase in the targets as we are not confident that there will be enough PRNs to meet demand," he said. Fears were also expressed that too few PRNs would lead to substantial increases in their cost.



"At the moment the average price for PRNs is between 13-15, but if demand increases you could expect to pay around 35-45," said Beard.



He was also afraid there would not be enough recycling capacity to meet the targets.



"An additional 900,000 tonnes of recycling would be required. The problem is that money has not been invested in domestic waste collection.



"What we need is an infrastructure that will target domestic waste and the small industrial waste that is being missed."


Story by Andy Scott.