Alupro urges further discussions on aluminium recycling

Alupro (Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation) has welcomed the opportunity to comment on Defra’s Review of Producer Responsibility Schemes, supporting in general its objectives. However, it has highlighted a number of areas of concern and seeks further discussion and clarification.

In particular Alupro is keen to pursue discussions on Positive Value Waste Streams, in respect of aluminium packaging. Executive Director, Rick Hindley stated: “Used aluminium packaging has by far the highest value of any domestically collected recyclable material, typically between £800 and £1,000 per ton. With such a high inherent scrap value, the PRN revenue is largely ineffective with only a limited impact on collection; currently PRN prices are between £5 and £10 per ton.”

The only justification therefore for including aluminium in the PRN system is to facilitate the counting of the volume of material collected for recycling. In reality, because there is no legal obligation on reprocessors and exporters to become accredited and PRN values are insignificant compared to the intrinsic value of the material, the “counting system” is imperfect and significant volumes of material collected for recycling are not captured and reported through the PRN system.

In addition, Rick Hindley raises concern with regards to the Approvals Process outlined in the document, stating: “After consultation with our reprocessor/exporter group, we fully support the government’s proposals to streamline the application process for both domestic reprocessors and exporters (option 1). Then with a view to ultimately removing the application process entirely (option 2) as the latter will deliver some cost savings over the current system as well as establish a robust, low-cost counting system that would allow accurate reporting of recycling performance with respect to aluminium.