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A big increase in UK packaging reduction targets could be unachievable without greater support by central and local government, the plastics industry has warned.
The Waste and Resources Action programme (Wrap) has announced the second phase of the Courtauld Commitment, in which major retail groups have agreed new targets that update the 2005 deal. Wrap says Courtauld 2, which will now go through an industry consultation, moves away from using solely weight-based targets and aims to achieve more sustainable use of resources over the entire lifecycle of products, throughout the whole supply chain.
The three new targets are:
Packaging – to reduce the weight, increase recycling rates and increase the recycled content of all grocery packaging, as appropriate. For plastics packaging, the target is to recycle 56.9% by 2020, compared with a 25% target set in 2005.
Household food and waste – to reduce UK household food and drink wastes by 4%.
Supply chain product and packaging waste – to reduce traditional grocery product and packaging waste in the grocery supply chain by 5%, including both solid and liquid wastes.
“We very much welcome the latest Courtauld Commitment 2 targets, which rightly go beyond simple weight-based targets for waste reduction,” said Chris Dow, managing director of Closed Loop Recycling, which recycles PET and HDPE bottles into food grade plastics.
“In the past five years, our domestic recycling industry has made unprecedented gains in developing the technology and infrastructure required to make rubies out of rubbish; that is turning waste into a valuable resource.
“But the only way to ensure that those gains are maintained and the promises of the Courtauld Commitment 2 are delivered, is for three-way commitment from firstly, big brands and retailers to increasingly use recycled content in their packaging, secondly, local authorities to ensure consumer friendly kerbside collection of waste, and finally, government agencies such as DEFRA and the Environment Agency look to seriously reform outdated systems such as Packaging Recovery Notes to insure the industry continues to attract the investment in the infrastructure needed.”
The British Plastics Federation said it fully supports the government's wish to direct waste from landfill and increase recycling, but the high target risks pushing the UK into recycling which is uneconomic and has environmental disadvantages through heavy use of energy and water.
“We feel the target, a massive increase of 32%, is not achievable in under ten years. This would not be possible, even if there was a necessary huge investment in the recycling infrastructure and standardised local authority collection, sorting and recycling systems which we do not have,” it said.
The BPF pointed out that Germany has had an active plastics recycling scheme for 15 years and has only achieved a 42% recycling rate.
A major concern is that the local government infrastructure for collection of plastics packaging is inadequate.
“Both the main political parties will not give firm directions to local authorities on what they should collect, sort and recycle, resulting in an uncoordinated patchwork of plastics collection which does not achieve its full potential,” said the BPF.
The BPF, PlasticsEurope and Packaging and Films Association (PAFA), last year launched the Plastics 2020 Challenge, which set an industry target of diverting 50% of plastics packaging waste from landfill by 2020.
Jan-Erik Johansson, responding to the Courtauld 2 targets for the Plastics 2020 Challenge, said: “The plastics industry hopes that the government will use the consultation period on the latest proposed recycling targets to listen to the views of the industry on the practical steps needed to achieve a sustainable and workable recycling target for plastics packaging. If we get this wrong it risks undermining all the great collaborative work that has been done in recent years to drive up the rates of recycling in this country.”
Barry Turner, chief executive of PAFA, identified another potential danger of the Courtauld 2 proposals and urged Wrap to take a “more holistic approach”.
He said: “Although the vital role of packaging is acknowledged by Courtauld, I believe this latest proposal could still risk changes in packaging being made which could increase food waste which, in turn, has a much higher carbon impact than the packaging that protects the food.”
As an example, PAFA pointed to multilayer films used to protect meat from deterioration, and which are not straightforward to recycle. In such circumstances, the packaging impacts can typically be as little as one fiftieth of the meat it protects, it said.
“The association hopes that despite the launch of Courtauld 2, Wrap will quickly start to evolve its successor so that industry and retailers can start planning with some certainty,” said Turner.
From:http://www.prw.com
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