The Environment Agency released the quarterly recycling figures yesterday, showing the tonnage per material that has been recovered and recycled between April and June 2014.
Overall, there has been an increase in the figures across all materials compared with last quarter. This is good news for producers as it means we are likely to see PRN prices decrease across the board over the next couple of months.
The figures show that we currently have a surplus of tonnage available in all materials compared with the quarterly obligation requirement. This is especially good news for materials such as plastic, glass and steel, which have all been reported as under-supplied in previous quarters, leading to volatility and increased PRN prices. It is reassuring to see such strong performance compared with disappointing figures released for quarter 1 this year.
Increase in the recovery and recycling of packaging materials
We believe that the rise in PRN prices seen recently have been a contributing factor to the increase in the recovery and recycling of packaging materials because higher PRN prices make it more economically viable for hard-to-recycle, lower quality material to be recycled. This means that, whilst the figures look promising this quarter, there is a chance that once PRN prices have decreased there may be a decline in the amount of reprocessing towards the end of the year. As a result of this, it is possible that we could see the prices increase again towards the end of 2014 and going into 2015.
ecosurety are working hard to ensure that our members benefit from any decrease in PRN prices, whilst also starting to look at contracting tonnage for 2015, to ensure that we are guaranteed supply of PRNs at the best prices possible.
We have shared these views in the latest article published on Lets Recycle. To read more, click here. If you have any questions about what this means for to your business, or if you would like to discuss further, please call us on 0845 094 2228 or email info@ecosurety.com.
Useful links
The Q4 verified recycling figures released by the Environment Agency indicate a reasonably performing quarter and a strong year overall for 2023.
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