Today, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and the Environment Agency announce their monitoring strategies for 2000 in compliance with the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations. The Advisory Committee on Packaging (ACP) welcomes this activity which is seen as essential in helping the UK meet its targets.

The strategies are designed to target all those companies who either deliberately, or inadvertently, are not playing their part in achieving their statutory obligations to help meet the 50% packaging recovery and 15% material specific recycling targets which the UK has to reach by the year 2001.

Priority areas for monitoring in 2000 will include:

• Companies which the agencies suspect may have obligations under the Regulations but have not registered with the agencies or a compliance scheme
  
• Companies in sectors with suspected under-declaration of packaging
  
• Companies with particularly large recovery and recycling obligations
  
• Companies which have declared a significant proportional quantity of exports
  
• Companies handling imported goods
  
• First time registrants
  

Within the sectors with suspected under-declaration of packaging, particular attention will be paid to ensuring that both imported and domestically supplied packaging are fully declared.

Director, Dr Paul Leinster from the Environment Agency said 'the agencies are determined to create a level playing field for industry and target those who may be placing a greater burden on others by failing to play their part. The Agencies also call on Industry to play its part in identifying free riders. For our part, we will make sure that 'taking reasonable steps' means what it says in ensuring that industry plans in advance to meet its obligations.'

Donald Macfarlane, Head of Waste Policy in SEPA stated that "the agencies will also ensure that reprocessors and exporters adhere fully to the conditions of their accreditation, in particular the provision of accurate data on packaging waste reprocessed, the correct issuing and sale of PRNs/ PERNs and the appropriate use of revenue obtained from those sales."

For the ACP, Chairman Sir Peter Parker said 'the ACP wants to work very closely with the Environment Agency and SEPA to ensure that industry puts in hand the necessary steps to meet the targets for 2001. We welcome the increased rigour in these forward plans. At the same time, industry must play its part helping to identify free riders and thus ensure that the burden of obligation is fairly met by all obligated companies'.

• The UK currently produces around 10 million tonnes of packaging waste every year. The EU Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste requires all member states to recover a minimum of 50% packaging waste by 2001. The UK has addressed this by introducing the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997. These regulations require all UK companies with a turnover exceeding £2 million and who handle more than 50 tonnes of packaging to carry out certain recovery and recycling obligations.
  
  
• These regulations are enforced in Scotland by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. From 2000, the regulations require SEPA to publish an annual monitoring strategy which outlines their policy on monitoring and enforcement under the regulations and the minimum number of persons it proposes to monitor in the course of that year.
  
  
• Packaging is also identified as a priority waste stream in the National waste Strategy for Scotland