International Review of Waste Management Policy - Department of ...

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b. in the calculation year the person handled in aggregate more than 50
tonnes of packaging or packaging materials.
Under the packaging waste regulations, a producer is obliged to recover and recycle
the packaging that is needed to discharge its obligation either through its own
actions, or through joining a compliance scheme. In the latter case, which is followed
by the vast majority of obligated entities, the compliance scheme then takes on the
producer’s obligation. There are currently 24 such compliance schemes in the UK.
A de facto system of tradable compliance credits helps drive compliance forward. 251
The nature of evidence which is generally used to demonstrate that the obligation of a
company, or compliance scheme, has been discharged is the Packaging Recovery
Note (and the Packaging Export Recovery Note). Accredited reprocessors are entitled
to issue these when packaging waste is recycled or recovered, and they may sell
them to obligated companies / compliance schemes. Essentially, if the market for
‘evidence’, in the form or PRNs / PERNs is tight (demand is strong relative to supply),
then the value of PRNs / PERNs will be higher than in situations where it is well
known that compliance is assured. It should be noted that PRNs / PERNs are material
specific, and since the relevant targets are also, the way in which PRN / PERN prices
move reflects the market for evidence of compliance for specific materials. It also
reflects what happens ‘at the margin’. In other words, if in a given year, compliance is
certain to be secured, PRN/PERN values are very low. If, on the other hand, the
market is tight, values increase, so that compliance costs are affected to a significant
degree by what happens ‘at the margin’. Equally, the overall costs of PRNs and PERNs
to producers and compliance schemes bear limited relation to the overall costs of
compliance, as represented by the costs of collecting, sorting and reprocessing
packaging materials.
13.2.4 Japan
The Containers and Packaging Recycling Act (1995) introduced producer
responsibility, at a time when 60% of household waste was deemed to be
packaging. 252 The Japan Containers and Packaging Recycling Association (JCPRA)
was set up to receive fees from producers and distributors of packaging and carry out
the required recycling. It did not cover aluminium, steel or cardboard – these are
recycled without any producer responsibility (the aluminium recycling rate was
estimated at over 80% in 2000). 253 By being members and paying the appropriate
fees, the producers and distributors undertake their recycling obligations.
The JCPRA does not organise or operate the system for collection of the materials,
this being carried out by the municipalities. The fees paid by members are a
proportion of the calculated recycling costs. These costs and proportions are agreed
251 This scheme was not initially designed explicitly as a tradable credit scheme.
252 Quoted from a 1995 survey by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, on the JCPA website,
http://www.jcpra.or.jp/eng/jcpra/02.html
253 Japan for Sustainability website, article of November 2004,
http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/025737.html