A consultation has been launched by Defra to lower the glass recycling target and avoid excessively high PRN prices that were seen at the end of last year and this year.
With PRN values currently at £80-90 per tonne for glass (as shown by our Intelligence report), and at a similar value to this at the end of 2012, there is a recognition within Defra that low volumes of glass collected in the first three quarters of the years in question, put pressure on the market to increase glass recycling targets in the final quarter.
Work undertaken by WRAP/Valpak in their Glassflow report found that the glass tonnage used by the Government to set targets was 350,000 tonnes higher than was actually the case.
It shows that as a result, in 2012, the UK over-achieved against the EU Directive target of 60 per cent by 8 per cent.
In 2011, there was also evidence of fraudulent PRNs being issued for material that did not exist. This fraud possibly added 100,000 to 200,000 tonnes of PRNs issued for material that had not been collected or reprocessed.
Therefore, the Government has decided to consult on three options. These are:
- Option 1 – do nothing and leave the current glass packaging recycling business target at 81%
- Option 2 – lower the glass packaging target to 75% and either amend or maintain the split between remelt and other glass recycling applications
- Option 3 – lower the glass packaging target to 77% and either amend or maintain the split between remelt and other glass recycling applications.
Comments on the consultation should be submitted by 17 January 2014.
