"With the UK’s steel packaging recycling rate having already surpassed the European packaging recycling target of 54% two years early, the challenge now is to continue this momentum through to 2010 and beyond"
David Williams, Manager of Corus Steel Packaging Recycling
London: Corus Steel Packaging Recycling, the UK’s centre of expertise on recycling steel packaging, has launched its annual PRN report.
The report highlights the “significant achievements and benefits” to recycling infrastructure made in 2007, resulting from Corus’ investment of the income from PRNs (Packaging Recovery Notes).
Corus explains that packaging chain companies are obliged to purchase PRNs as evidence that their legal responsibility to recover and recycle quantified tonnages of packaging has been fulfilled. The PRNs are sold by accredited recycling operators like Corus, either to an obligated company or to a compliance scheme acting on their behalf.
Most “tin” cans in the domestic waste stream are actually made of steel. They include food cans, pet food cans, drinks cans, aerosols, paint cans, etc. These are readily recycled, though they already contain around 25% recycled steel. The big advantage is that steel is infinitely recyclable with no loss in quality.
The Corus report "Moving forward in recycling".
The new report, ‘Moving Forward in Recycling’, shows how Corus invested PRN funds to help boost steel packaging recycling rates to a record level of 69% in 2007, according to the companies own statistics. Also dealt with in the report are key industry topics such as carbon reduction, climate change, retailer packaging initiatives and possible changes to the PRN system.
Corus Steel Packaging Recycling is Corus’ centre of technical and communications expertise on steel packaging recycling. The organisation facilitates and promotes the recovery and recycling of all types of steel packaging in the UK.
2007 recycling
The report says that in 2007, steel packaging recycling hit an all time high of 404,500 tonnes. This exceeded business targets by 27% and help create a surplus of over 40kt over the national target.
Of this overall recycling tonnage, 68,000 tonnes of steel were recovered via Corus’ CanRoute – established in 1999 - representing a 48% increase on 2006 and again the highest yearly tonnage recorded.
Corus points out that by investing PRN funds, it has improved the flow of material into its steel making plants and increasing the potential intake of collected steel packaging from 175kt to 250kt in 2007. Hundreds of thousands of pounds of PRN funds have been invested in a number of areas to facilitate and enhance the collection and recovery of steel packaging.
In fact since 1998, Corus has invested millions of PRN funds in capital equipment, strategic research studies, education and communications to improve steel packaging recycling in the UK. The net effect is that the UK recycling rate has more than doubled and more 720,000 tonnes of steel packaging has been diverted from landfill - equivalent to more than 3.5 billion cans.
David Williams, Manager of Corus Steel Packaging Recycling, says:
“With the UK’s steel packaging recycling rate having already surpassed the European packaging recycling target of 54% two years early, the challenge now is to continue this momentum through to 2010 and beyond.
“Our priorities are to maintain record recycling levels for steel, and to ensure that as many people as possible recognise that steel is a sustainable, successful and long-term packaging solution. The work of our Research and Development Department and the continued strategic application of PRN funds for improving recycling infrastructure and investing in technology to ensure cleaner materials with a minimum ferrous content of 92%, will help to ensure that our previous achievements in this field continue."
Further information
The ‘Moving Forward in Recycling’ PRN report can be downloaded from the News Section of www.cspr.co.uk.
The Steel Can Recycling Information Bureau can be found at www.scrib.org .
Corus is a subsidiary of Tata Steel, the world's sixth largest and second most global steel producer. With a combined presence in nearly 50 countries, Tata Steel including Corus has 84,000 employees across five continents and a pro forma crude steel production of 27 million tonnes in 2007.
The company is Europe's second largest steel producer with revenues of £9.7 billion and crude steel production of 18.3 million tonnes in 2006, primarily in the UK and the Netherlands. The company says that it combines international expertise with local customer service and provides innovative solutions to the construction, automotive, packaging, mechanical engineering and other markets worldwide.