FDBusiness.com

A project has begun in the UK to assess the glass packaging supply chain in the UK with respect to recycling and EU packaging waste regulations.

Supported by WRAP, the UK government’s Waste & Resources Action Programme, packaging legal compliance company Valpak is working alongside other bodies including the Advisory Committee on Packaging (ACP), Defra, the UK Environment Agency and British Glass, to establish a better understanding of the operation of the glass market in the UK.

While compliance for UK glass was achieved in 2012, according to Valpak: “The surplus carry over of Packaging Recovery Note (PRN) and Packaging Export Recovery Note (PERN) evidence into 2013 was reduced to 16,700 tonnes compared to the 57,000 tonnes carried over into 2012 (at the end of 2011), which potentially makes reaching compliance in 2013 more difficult.”

The remit of the project also takes in the issue of the quality of glass collected in the UK for recycling to remelt.

“This affects the economics of using glass cullet in place of virgin materials from the viewpoint of glass container manufacturers,” says Valpak.

The main objectives of the project will be:

• To improve market transparency and information on glass packaging recovery and recycling in the UK
• To identify and evaluate possible risks to UK compliance for glass this year, and in subsequent years to 2017
• And to develop scenarios to assess and quantify potential market supply/demand for increased glass recycling, including collection, sorting, processing and reprocessing

The project began in the last week of April 2013 and is scheduled to complete at the end of July.

The current status of the glass market will be quantified in terms of the tonnages flowing on to the market with estimates split by colour and by format, building an overall picture for the UK, and separately for Scotland and for Wales.

The project will also look back at events in the glass market to gain a better understanding of the likely evolution of glass packaging PRN/PERNs, in terms of tonnages and prices.

Steve Gough, Valpak CEO, says: “We felt that this work was of sufficient importance to commit time and resource to the project.

“We also believe that it must engage with those key stakeholders, to whom this information is essential, in terms of planning for cost effective UK compliance, identifying any barriers to more effective glass collection and recycling and ensuring that the UK is best placed to comply with EU targets and to do so at lowest cost to industry.”

ACP chairman Bob Lynsey says: “This will give us a good understanding of the glass PRN market which hopefully will be welcomed by those directly involved in the industry.”