"Reducing, recovering and recycling packaging is an important way in which business, Government and the consumer can work together to reduce greenhouse gases"
Joan Ruddock, Minister for Waste
London: The UK Government intends to increase its targets for packaging waste recovery and recycling in Great Britain from 2008 onwards, though this is subject to parliamentary procedures according to an announcement made yesterday (11 Feb).
The new overall recovery targets of 72% in 2008, 73% in 2009 and 74% in 2010 is intended to ensure that the 2008 EU Directive target of recycling at least 60% of Great Britain’s packaging waste is met, and has the added attraction of further savings on carbon dioxide emissions.
Aluminium and glass
The increases in targets for aluminium and glass for 2008 are in fact lower than those included in an earlier consultation by Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) on packaging wastes, though higher than the targets for 2007. The Department says that this reflects current market factors and updated information on the recycling of these materials.
The intention is that targets for aluminium and glass will rise steadily year-on-year and the Department says that it is balancing the adjustments with higher than proposed overall recovery targets, in order to achieve a bigger CO2 reduction in total.
Over the next year, Defra says that it will be working with the industry, Local Authorities, WRAP and others to develop a package of measures to increase aluminium recycling.
Improvements in collection and sorting
The Department considers that significant improvements in collection and sorting arrangements are needed, particularly for beverage cans in the household and on-street waste streams. Defra says that, “aluminium is one of the Waste Strategy’s priority materials, high-value and carbon-rich, so we have much to gain by enabling higher recycling rates”.
Savings in CO2 emissions
The UK Government estimates that the higher targets will save over 8m tonnes of CO2 emissions, thereby helping in the “fight against dangerous climate change”. The targets will increase again over the following two years to realise a further saving of 258,097 tonnes of CO2 in 2009 and then an additional 285,436 tonnes in 2010
The targets have been designed to save more CO2 emissions than the targets originally published in Defra’s consultation paper last year, and are based on updated market data and the feedback received during the public consultation which ended in November last year.
Joan Ruddock, Minister for Waste, said:
“Reducing, recovering and recycling packaging is an important way in which business, Government and the consumer can work together to reduce greenhouse gases. These increased targets represent our commitment to drive up recycling in Great Britain and tackle dangerous climate change.”