As announced a couple of weeks ago, the European Union is getting ready to review its Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive, and with it the mandatory recycling targets set for packaging across the 27 member states. This is part of a wider 'Targets Review Project' commissioned by the DG Environment at the European Commission, and other Directives, such as the Landfill Directive and the Waste Framework Directive, will also be re-evaluated and consulted upon.
With this in mind, in the year that new recycling and recovery targets for packaging in the UK come into force (as announced in 2012's Budget Statement), it seems an interesting time to reflect on our own successes and challenges in this area, as a member state of the EU and as a country trying consistently to improve its environmental credentials and become a front-runner in recycling. So, what progress is being made now, when it comes to packaging recycling? Are we seeing more impetus on a national, and international, level to ensure these materials are captured and remade into useful products?
Before the review of packaging waste recovery and recycling targets in 2011, it should be noted that the UK was consistently surpassing the mandatory targets set by the Directive, recycling 60.7% of packaging waste, rather than the mandated 55%, and recovering even more: 67%, where the target was 60%. So, we are on the right track, and should applaud ourselves for the efforts we have made so far.
I believe recycling is gradually becoming part of the national consciousness, and is receiving more and more attention from households and individuals. Packaging waste is a very visible waste stream to householders, which makes it a great waste stream to target for ambitious recycling targets, such as the ones set out by Defra last year.
Across the UK we can see some encouraging signs that packaging wastes, and other materials, are increasingly being kept out of landfill. Wales, for example, now officially recycles more than it landfills; an outstanding example that England should be aiming to follow!
I think raising awareness of these kinds of successes with householders, and showing the real potential for landfill diversion based on their domestic recycling activities, is vital to continuing the upwards trend in packaging recycling, and recycling of all materials.
On an international level, the recent Plastics Green Paper, launched by EU Environment Commissioner, Janez Potocnik, shows a real drive to capture more of this valuable and traditionally under-collected, over-looked material. In the UK we still send around 50% of our plastic drinks bottles to landfill, bottles which could easily be recycled into new drinks packaging and other food-grade materials. The issue of un-captured plastic wastes being raised at the highest level in the EU is an important step in highlighting the value of this material. This is crucial as there is so much more work to be done, given that we landfill so many plastics in the EU that it represents the annual equivalent of burying 12 million tonnes of oil.
In 2012, the UK recycled an estimated 640,000 tonnes of plastic packaging. With the new plastics packaging target set by Defra, of a 5% year on year increase for the next four years, the UK will have to raise this to 1.2 million tonnes of plastics packaging by 2017. This may represent a big challenge for households and recyclers, but it is also a fantastic opportunity to take a huge leap forward in terms of our environmental credentials as an EU member state.
I hope any revisions made to the Packaging Directive show a clear environmental ambition. Packaging is a very visible, very recyclable waste stream, and we should be aiming to build on our past successes and keep delivering on targets set, and surpassing them where we can.
Dan Rogerson MP is a Co-Chair of the Associate Parliamentary Sustainable Resource Group
