Plastic PRNs & Prosecutions << Back to Main News Page Added: Thursday, 7 July 2005 The Q1 plastic packaging recycling data has been published. This indicates that in Q1 2005 92,262t of plastic packaging were collected for recycling, of which 43,656 were recycled in the UK. This shows a continuing trend to export and declining reprocessing in the UK. There is still some data missing from the plastics recyclers’ returns that may increase this figure. It is too early to draw conclusions for the rest of the year but on this basis there is an annualised rate of perhaps 370ktpa against a target which is likely to be 390ktpa - so a substantial 20ktpa shortfall on the target. The figures also showed that PRNs had only been issued on 70% of the material collected in Q1 - leading to the conclusion that the current PRN market may have been responding to an unrepresentative level of shortfall in supply. As a result of the data being published the steady rise in PRN prices appears to have stopped, and prices have settled on the Environment Exchange at around £65/tonne for plastic packaging. In the UK recyclers of plastic have been highlighting continued concerns that they are disadvantage in competing against export markets, due to the nature of the regulations and controls in place. As a result, The Advisory Committee on Packaging has announced it is establishing an export group to look into these concerns and report back. Recoup will be one of the representatives on this group. Meanwhile the first successful prosecution for fraudulent issuing of plastic PRNs has taken place (writes Letsrecycle.com): Stephen Leigh of Burslem-based SS Thermoplastics pleaded guilty to two charges at Stoke on Trent Magistrates on May 27 after a joint investigation between the Agency and Staffordshire police. He was given 100 hours' community service and was told to pay £900 in costs. The plastics recycler is also thought to have agreed to pay back as much as £13,000 he defrauded from obligated packaging producers, although this figure is now in doubt with Agency officers unable to confirm the repayment of monies illegally received after the case. Mr Leigh was prosecuted under the Theft Act of 1968, relating to him obtaining monies by deception and false accounting rather than breaching the terms of the Packaging Waste Regulations themselves.