Analysis by consultancy 360 Environmental suggests that some packaging recycling targets for 2015 will not be met.
Looking at the updated Packaging Recovery Note (PRN) data for the first half of 2015, 360 Environmental said that aluminium is at risk of missing its target as a result of a changes to inclusion of incinerator bottom ash and low PRN prices in 2014. This has caused a 20% fall in accredited reprocessors/exporters and therefore a fall in tonnage reported.
With a target of 69,927 tonnes to be recycled, only 27,290 tonnes was recycled in the first half of the year.
Glass is only just on course to meet its target of 1,476,295 tonnes, while plastic is well on target to meet the 830,595 tonne target despite currently high PRN prices.
Paper remains flat on 2014 but is on course, but with a fall in recycling in 2015 for wood compared to last year, there is a risk it won’t meet its recycling target.
This difficulty for wood has been exacerbated by the halving of waste to to energy recovery tonnage which means that the net recovery position must be met by recycling PRNs for the first time ever.
On its website, 360 Environmental wrote: “This casts a somewhat gloomy picture for 2015. With only four months left of the year, we simply will not meet some of the targets – aluminium and overall recovery in particular – without some pretty strenuous efforts to get new capacity accredited and tonnage captured.
“As plastic PRN prices continue to rise, that looks fairly safe and certainly, there is no issue with steel.
“But with glass PRN prices continuing to languish at what are considered to be uneconomic levels to deal with some of the poorer quality material, it is not just aluminium and recovery that need to be carefully watched and prepared for.”
Data provided by 360 Environmental from National Packaging Waste Database
