Waste teeth
Waste teeth
In the first case of its kind, the Environment Agency recently withdrew voluntary accreditation from a reprocessor, Save Wood Products, based on the Isle of Wight. The Environment Agency and Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) regulate the Producer Responsibility (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997, which set businesses recycling and recovery targets for waste packaging. To simplify the administration associated with these regulations, the Agencies introduced a voluntary accreditation system where accredited reprocessors issue a standard form a Packaging Waste Recovery Note (PRN) for the packaging of waste materials they have received for recovery or recycling on behalf of an individual business. These PRNs can be used by businesses to prove to the Environment Agency (and SEPA) that they have met their statutory obligations by recycling or recovering a specified tonnage of packaging waste. As part of the accreditation procedure, reprocessors are audited by Agency staff, to ensure that they have issued the correct number of PRNs in relation to the material they have received for processing. The Agency has removed Save Wood Products'voluntary accreditation after one of its officers found that the company was not complying with the conditions of the system. Under the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997, UK businesses handling packaging must recycle and recover over half of their packaging waste by the year 2001.
For further details on registration and/or the voluntary accreditation system, please call The Producer Responsibility Registration Unit on 0181 305 4036. For general enquiries about the Regulations, please contact your local Environment Agency office on 0645 333111.
