Packaging Recovery Note website launched to boost market transparency

Ecosurety have launched a new website that aims to improve UK recycling levels by increasing transparency and reducing price volatility of the Packaging Recovery Note (PRN) market.

The website, named Circularety, will allow companies governed by producer responsibility regulations to see exactly where and how PRN money is being invested.

The platform is designed to empower producers to seek out approved reprocessors and invest their PRN money in “tangible projects”.

Reprocessors will be able to use the platform to showcase projects that producers can invest in using their PRN obligation money, enabling them to attract larger sums for investment.

Producers are required, under the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2007, to buy an amount of PRNs equivalent to the weight of packaging they put into the UK market in the previous calendar year. The exact amount is calculated by the Environment Agency (EA) based on estimates of tonnages flowing through the UK economy.

The money raised from PRN fees is fed back into the recycling industry, although a report published by the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM) in July found there was a lack of transparency about how exactly the money was being spent.

The new website has been designed to solve this problem, giving producers a direct link to reprocessors and information about the projects they are investing in.

The website enables producers to present detailed PRN expenditure to their boards. It also gives them a marketing boost as they can publicise their environmental credentials using specific examples of how the money is being invested into the recycling industry.

Link to website.

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