The UK’s packaging recycling targets for 2009 will not change, says the Government.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has confirmed that the target for recovery and recycling will remain at 73%, an increase of one per cent from 2008.

The announcement follows its review of the volatile global recycling market caused by the economic crisis and China’s decision to ban imports of mixed plastics waste. Prices for recovered materials fell to an all time low in October/November 2008, but were followed by increases from December to January.

The Department asked packaging producer compliance schemes in January to collate data on forecasted sales of recycled packaging materials.

A spokesperson said, ‘Based on analysis of available evidence and the recent recommendation of the Advisory Committee on Packaging, Ministers have agreed to maintain the existing targets for packaging recovery and recycling’. The Government will, however, continue monitoring the situation.

Recent figures from WRAP suggest that while the market is beginning to stabilise, the prices for plastics and cardboard could come under pressure. The Materials Pricing Report shows that heightened demand for recovered mixed HDPE has led to a £90/t increase from 9-23 February, reaching £138/t. The prices for cardboard, mixed papers and clear PET were stagnant over the same period. Good quality recyclate more readily found a market.

European solution?

The European Environment Council discussed the overall dip in demand for recycled materials at a meeting on 2 March in Brussels, Belgium. Delegates reviewed a paper on the topic issued by the EU Czech Presidency.

The paper states that there is ‘now a global surplus of waste collected for recycling. This has mainly affected countries...which are producing badly sorted materials for recycling and those...that rely on recycling outside of the EU’.

Measures put forward to address this include – encouraging Member States to maintain their existing targets for recycling, focusing on waste minimisation through the Eco-Design Directive, reducing the administrative burden of regulatory compliance through e-systems, and having a clearer idea of when recyclable materials cease to be waste. The latter would remove the burden of handling and transporting material under waste regulations. Collection and sorting methods on a national level also need to be improved.

Further information: Wrap