The UK has met its 2010 packaging recycling & recovery targets despite a decrease in the tonnage of glass recycled in the last quarter of 2010, according to results published by the Environment Agency on the National Packaging Waste Database. According to the results, more than 7.7M/t of packaging were recycled or recovered during the 2010 compliance year, while the actual 2010 target was 6.8M/t. However, UK packaging producers met their material-specific target for glass only by a small margin as 1.64M/t of glass packaging were sent for recycling in 2010 & the UK obligation figure was 1.69M/t. The glass target was met with the help of Packaging Recovery Notes (PRNs) carried from 2009 into 2010. The "carry over" total from the last compliance period was around 64,000/t. Under the system, PRNs (issued in December), can either be used against that year's obligation or "carried over" to the following year. About 330,000/t of glass packaging was sent for recycling or reprocessing between Oct-Dec/10, over 50,000/t less than during the same period 2009. This means that there was less surplus to carry forward to 2011 & that carry over has decreased to 12,000/t compared to around 63,657/t the year before. In Dec/10, adverse weather conditions led to low glass PRN prices. A fraud investigation by the EA at a glass reprocessor called Nationwide also took place in this period, resulting in the firm being suspended. According to Environment Exchange MD, Ian Andrews, the glass 2010 PRN figures were a cause for concern because the PRN system only had 12,000/t to "carry over" as opposed to 64,000/t. "Although 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." Andrews added that a lot of glass did not get moved in December and that this "missing" tonnage could reappear in the system by the first quarter of 2011 (21 April).
