Defra and the Welsh Assembly confirmed that leased packaging,
such as pallets and crates, will now be fully subject to the
regulations subject to Parliamentary approval.
Ben Bradshaw, Local Environmental Quality Minister, said that
the measures would spread compliance costs more equitably among
businesses.
The UK has to meet new, higher recovery and recycling targets
for packaging waste by 2008.
In order to meet that target, packaging laws require target
levels of packaging waste recycling by all businesses that handle
over 50 tonnes of packaging a year and with turnover in excess of
£2 million a year.
To date the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging
Waste) Regulations have succeeded in raising the recycling rate of
packaging waste from around 27% in 1997 to just below 50% at the
end of 2004.
Mr Bradshaw also confirmed that the some of the administrative
and cost burden would be eased for smaller businesses following the
proposal to simplify small businesses' data requirement.
A number of technical changes will also be adopted including the
removal of the "reasonable steps" wording from the regulations.
Proposals to include packaging from franchise businesses were
welcomed in consultation, but further details of the proposal are
still under consideration in a later consultation, the outcome of
which will be known shortly.
