The environment agency has published the results on the national packaging waste database. More than 7.7m tonnes of packaging were recycled or recovered during the 2010 compliance year. The actual 2010 target was 6.8m tonnes. However, uk packaging producers only met their materialspecific target for glass by a small margin. In total, 1.64m tonnes of glass packaging were sent for recycling in 2010 and the uk obligation figure was 1.69 million tonnes. The glass target was met with the help of packaging recovery notes prns carried into 2010 from 2009. The &lsquocarry over&rsquo total from the last compliance period was around 64,000 tonnes. Under the prn system, prns which are issued in december can either be used against that year&rsquos obligation or &lsquocarried over&rsquo to the following year. Between october and december 2010, around 330,000 tonnes of glass packaging was sent for recycling or reprocessing.
This figure was over 50,000 tonnes less than during the same period in 2009. This means that there was less surplus to carry forward to 2011. Carry over has decreased, now, to 12,000 tonnes compared to around 63,657 tonnes the year before. In 2010, adverse weather conditions in december led to low glass prn prices. There was also a fraud investigation by the ea at a glass reprocessor called nationwide. This investigation led to the firm being suspended. But pn understands that it has since been reinstated. Environment exchange market director ian andrews told packaging news that the glass 2010 prn figures were a cause for concern because the prn system only had 12,000 tonnes to &ldquocarry in&rdquo as opposed to 64,000 tonnes. &ldquowe are in a relatively precarious position as far as glass prns are concerned.
That is what the figures are telling us. &ldquoalthough the figure is a cause for concern i believe that much of the tonnage which was missing from the last quarter of the year will be made up by the first quarter of 2011. Only when data is published for the first quarter of 2011 will we really know if there is going to be an issue with glass this year.&rdquo andrews also said that a lot of glass did not get moved in december and that this &ldquomissing&rdquo tonnage could reappear back into the system by the first quarter of 2011 21 april. However, he also said that, traditionally, glass carry over is normally more than 60,000 tonnes as opposed to 12,000 tonnes and that this puts glass prns at a &ldquoprecarious position&rdquo.
He even hinted that the uk could potentially miss its 2011 packaging recycling targets if the extra tonnage is not found. Elsewhere, comparing q4 with q3 prn production, paper decreased by 30,248 tonnes, glass was decreased by 144,803 tonnes, aluminium increased by 166, steel was down 16,197, plastic was down 15,696,wood was down 26,393, and recovery was up 9,137 tonnes.
