This article, from Packaging News, explains concerns from the packaging industry over how it is to meet a series of tough packaging recycling targets proposed by Defra from 2013-17. The proposals, which would see the target recycling rate for plastics almost double by 2017, and that of aluminium increase by a third, have been laid out in a consultation document published by Defra just before Christmas. Defra has suggested that the recycling rate for plastics should increase by 5%/pa; aluminium by 3%/pa; and steel by 1%/pa. There is a new split target for glass to distinguish between material that becomes aggregate and that which returns to glass packaging, known as re-melt; but there are no new proposals for paper and wood. Packaging recycling targets currently have only been set until 2012 and these have been broadly flat for the past 2 years. British Glass Head of Container Affairs, Rebecca Cocking said she was encouraged by the government's proposals but added that the biggest concern was logistics and how a proposed cap on glass going into aggregates - at the 2009 level of 650,000/tonnes - would work in practice. She also added that at the moment, around 858,000/tonnes of glass for re-melt is collected but this figure is falling. "Budgets are being cut and councils are opting for easy collection options by using the co-mingling system, which is going the opposite way of what we want to do," she said.
