UK packaging waste targets 'skewed', company claims

Westpack also warned that businesses are not using funds credited to them under the UK's recycling programme to properly invest in new infrastructure to increase domestic recycling rates.

The UK's Packaging Waste Regulations, require companies to account for recycling and recovery of material as part of a Europe-wide effort to achieve packaging recovery rates of 60 per cent by 31December 2008. UK companies with a turnover in excess of €3m per year who handle over 50 tonnes of packaging in a year are required to submit their recycling data.

Last year, 49.6 per cent of packaging waste was recycled in the UK according to statistics produced by Defra​, the UK government departmentresponsible for the programme. The rate is an increase of 22 per cent over the previous year.

However Wastepack says the figure proves there has been "very little growth" in domestic packaging waste reprocessing, and that increases in recycling rates have been maintained largelythrough exports, the company stated at LetsRecycle.com​.

Wastepack warns that the considerable increase in exports of packaging waste have been achieved because the regulations allow a percentage of mixed recycling waste to be counted as packagingwaste. Such material would have been "exported regardless of whether the producer responsibility regulations were in place or not"​, the company stated.

The UK has only met its packaging waste recovery targets because of the loophole Wastepack said. The company pointed out that since 1998, domestic reprocessing levels have only increased to3,121,890 tonnes from 2,758,867 tonnes a year when wood recycling figures are excluded. Meanwhile exports have risen during the same period to 1,159,778 tonnes from 115,052 tonnes.

"It is now very apparent that monies raised to date have not been invested,"​ said Peter Gaffney, a Wastepack director. "The much-needed infrastructure that gets more of theright material out of the waste stream in time to contribute towards the 2008 target is not there."​

Under the UK's packaging regulations, packaging producers are supposed to pay for new recycling infrastructure by purchasing packaging waste recovery notes from accredited reprocessors such asWastepack.

Gaffney said as much as £20m in credited funds for companies had been paid last year to exporting packaging waste for recycling rather than being invested in the UK. He warned that relying onexports to meet the recovery targets under the EU directive made the UK too dependent on other countries.