Plastic drops a little on weekly PRN report

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The price of plastic PRNs has fallen slightly on the weekly scrap-ex PRN report amid calls for the market to be given a kick start.

Last week, plastic PRNs were trading at £6.75 to £7.25 per tonne, but this week the bottom end of the range is down slightly to £6.50 to £7.25 per tonne. No other price changes were reported this week. Click here to view the report.

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A market insider told scrap-ex news that “people are sitting on their hands” waiting for the release of Q2 packaging data towards the end of this month, and this might spark some life into the PRN market.

However, the source also said that the market would “die a death” unless something is done to reform the PRN market.

The insider added: “Current packaging targets don’t really work for anyone. PRNs are meant to be a marketplace to encourage packaging recycling. If we need to increase packaging recycling then targets have to go up to make PRNs worthwhile.”

Last October, Defra announced that only the targets for plastics and steel would rise in 2011 and 2012, despite calls from the recycling industry for increased targets across the board. All other targets remained the same. Plastics targets are 32 per cent in 2011 and 2012, up from 29 per cent in 2010. Steel targets increased to 71 per cent in 2011 and 2012, compared to 69 per cent in 2010.

Recently, the Advisory Committee on Packaging recommended increased packaging targets for 2013 to 2020 and called for a “step change” in the recovery of packaging.

It recommended a plastic bottle recycling target of 70 per cent and 60 per cent for plastic film. It also wants a mixed plastics target of 20 per cent. By 2020, this would mean an overall plastic goal of 45 per cent.

Its target for paper was 72.7 per cent in 2013 rising to 86.1 per cent in 2020, 28.7 per cent for plastic in 2013 increasing to 45 per cent in 2020, a target of 45 per cent in 2013 has been proposed for aluminium rising  to  65 per cent in 2020 and a 66 per cent in 2013 up to 78 per cent in 2020 for steel.

For glass, the 2013 proposed target is 60.7 per cent rising to 65.6 per cent by 2020 and wood’s proposed 2013 target is 38.2 per cent increasing to 70.6 per cent in 2020.

Defra is to consult on these targets up to 2017.