Supplementary Memorandum by Biffa
Producer Responsibility (Q665)
For the last decade we have been emphasising
the need to review the Construct for Producer Responsibility funding
as it was originally determined by the Sir Peter Parker Review
Group. Now that commodity prices are heading upwards due to demand,
capacity limits and the cost of embedded carbon, there is a clear
case for single point Producer/Importer financial liability for
end Waste Management costs. With that responsibility would come
ownership and with ownership would come economic benefit in the
form of cheap raw materials or income streams.
In this construct sector, bodies or individual
brands would be obliged to let large scale (regional) contracts
for collection and disposal through tendering processes similar
to public sector waste collection/disposal. They would require
to be supervised by the OFT or subject to Audit Commission control
and be obliged to declare their net recovery cost on the product.
In the following sectors: packaging, WEEE, nappies/incontinence
materials, chemicals/HHW, tyres, ELVs; the effect would be to
remove financial liability for around 12 million tonnes of materials
from the public purse onto supply chains equivalent to around
£1.2 billion of cost for collection and disposal. Environmentally
the impact would probably be significantly lower due to route
collection logistics, densities and economies of scale in underwriting
capacity supply guarantees for end life processing plant—whether
for recycling, composting or CHP Energy. As the existing confused
and cluttered framework for managing Producer Responsibility achieves
sclerosis, such an approach is urgently needed.
June 2008
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