pressrelease

Contact: Cherry Hamson
Tel: 01527 597757

August 23rd, 2005

ALUPRO RESPONSE TO DEFRA CONSULTATION PAPER ON
MEETING PACKAGING DIRECTIVE TARGETS IN 2008
from
Paul Martin, Chief Executive

Alupro has received the Consultation Paper and will be considering the detailed proposals with our packaging Producer and Reprocessor members during the short time allowed for the consultation.

Having been an active partner in the 'Packflow' project with Valpak and others we are pleased to see targets re-visited and extended forward to 2010. The minor adjustments to the aluminium targets are welcome, and present a similar recycling challenge in tonnage terms because of anticipated market growth over the period. We are therefore looking to the proposals for changes which will create improved conditions for recycling success.

The proposals for bringing franchised businesses and leased packaging into obligation are sensible and should help spread responsibility at a time when targets and costs are increasing.

We are also pleased to see measures to encourage better planning, in particular closer scrutiny of Producers' operational plans. However, on initial reading, the opportunity to tie these more closely to Reprocessor plans appears to have been missed. The emphasis for PRN/PERN revenue spend still focuses on capacity and market development, which are not major issues for aluminium, and greater scrutiny and detail of investments in packaging recycling would be welcome.

Our challenges are - as ever - in collection. In common with other materials, we need greatly improved household waste collection to meet the targets, and this means far greater focus on the metropolitan areas. It would therefore be helpful if there was a presumption in favour of a proportion of PRN/PERN funds being targeted at multi-material domestic collection, as well as at the considerable potential material source of away-from-home locations such as the workplace, sports, leisure and travel locations. Over £25m-worth of aluminium is estimated to be available for collection from these businesses.

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