Provisional monthly data released

Ahead of the final 2021 quarterly data, the monthly data from the Environment Agency shows that all materials have met the targets for 2021. Despite concerns in the latter part of the year for glass and plastic, both material grades set to meet the tonnage required.

Paper Board and Wood

Both paper board and wood have reported very consistent and strong figures each month, with little cause for concern for meeting the targets for 2021. Both are now in an exceptionally strong position for the upcoming year, with positive carryover for 2022.

Despite the usual taper off at the end of the year when construction traditionally pauses, 30,000 tonnes of wood was reported in the December data, taking the total tonnage for the year to 561,000. This is 162% of the target for the year, without any carryover.

With 343,224 tonnes reported for paper board, this material had its second highest monthly tonnage in December. This takes the total reported tonnage for the year to 3,689,268. This means paper board is another material grade that has met the 2021 target with significant carryover for 2022.

Aluminium and Steel

The monthly data shows that aluminium and steel have met 116.57% and 110.04% of the 2021 targets respectively. As with all of the monthly reported tonnages, we will get a more accurate position from the quarterly figures, providing a clearer idea of the carryover we can expect for both materials going into 2022.

Plastic

With just over 100,000 tonnes of plastic reported in November, the weights reported for December fell by almost half to 53,446 which has impacted the potential amount of carryover.

The monthly data shows plastic is at 103% of its target, with just over 100,000 reported in November. With the figures as they stand, we would see carryover being just below 40,000 tonnes, which is less than half of the carryover tonnage from 2020 to 2021.

Glass

Glass figures for December remained consistent with the previous months, with glass other seeing a reduction from November to December. Glass Remelt reported an additional 123,452 tonnes in December, which pushed the total tonnage just over target for the year. Glass other had another 37,514 tonnes reported, which means it has met the 2021 target without carryover.

This puts the total glass figure at 103% of target, including carryover. Much like plastic, this could potentially cause concern for the glass markets going into 2022.

Martin Trigg-Knight, Head of Compliance at Clarity Environmental, said of the data

“Both plastic and glass have caused concern for the industry in the past few months and this has been reflected in some price changes for the grades. We believe glass and plastic data will be increasing in the coming weeks once the mandatory quarterly data is released – this will give us a clear picture of the position heading into the coming compliance year.

“The materials to watch in 2022 will be glass and plastic. With potentially limited carryover, we will need to see a strong start to the year for those materials.”

Understanding Packaging Compliance

Businesses who place over 50 tonnes of packaging onto the UK market and have a turnover above 2 million pounds annually, must comply with the Packaging Regulations. This includes collection and reporting data to the Environment Agency and procuring PRNs.

If you believe your business should be compliant and has yet to sign up to a registered compliance scheme you can contact us for further information and guidance.