Defra’s first head of producer responsibility, Sheila McKinley, who played a big part in developing the packaging waste PRN system in the UK, has died.
Mrs McKinley helped create the PRN system and its success was partly down to her work within the Department for Environment, Transport and the Regions as its first head of extended producer responsibility (EPR). This saw her taking on responsibility for other materials such as waste electrical and electronic equipment and end-of-life vehicles within DETR with the work becoming part of Defra from 2001.
In 2000 she reported that in terms of packaging waste, the UK had reached a recovery rate of over 38% and a recycling rate of 33%. There were 17 compliance schemes and around 14,000 businesses registered.
Sheila McKinley receiving her OBE in 2005 from the Queen
In 2006 she received an OBE for her work on packaging and producer responsibility. She was also a writer and great follower of horse-racing.
Tributes
Tributes were paid to Mrs McKinley this week from across the recycling sector.
John Turner OBE, a former chair of the government’s Advisory Committee on Packaging, said Mrs McKinley was a key and successful player “working with industry and others to make the shared approach on the Packaging Regulations effectively increase the recycling of packaging.
“She was a really nice person and was awarded an OBE for her tireless application to the challenges of those times.”
Mr Turner added: “I had the pleasure of keeping in touch with Sheila over the years and we used to meet for coffee on occasions and talk of the way things happened in those days. She will be sorely missed by those that had the pleasure of working with her then and her many friends.”
The current chair of the ACP, Phil Conran, said: “Sheila was the mother of producer responsibility in the UK and current regulations are very much her legacy. I had the privilege and pleasure of working closely with her on the ACP for many years where we had many lively discussions but became firm friends.
“She was a really nice person and was awarded an OBE for her tireless application to the challenges of those times.”
John Turner
Former chair of the Advisory Committee on Packaging
“She had huge intellect and didn’t suffer fools gladly, but her environmental passion was undiminished through her years at Defra and her retirement in 2007 was a great loss to both industry and the civil service. She was definitely one of a kind and should be remembered for her massive contribution to the foundations of future policy.”
Compliance scheme Valpak, which has several of its team who knew Mrs McKinley well, issued a statement acknowledging Mrs McKinley’s “huge role” in producer responsibility.
The scheme said: “Hearing the news of Sheila’s passing was very sad. She led the Producer Responsibility Department at Defra and played a huge role in getting the principles of producer responsibility up and operational in the UK. She was tough but fair.
“Often her work would mean balancing all of the demands of producers, retailers, schemes, material organisations, reprocessors, pressure groups and politicians. Each were given a fair hearing as long as they could back up their arguments with facts and research. She was a force to be reckoned with, respectful and strong. We are sure she will be sadly missed.”
Funeral
The funeral of Mrs McKinley, who died after a long battle with cancer, is at Golders Green Crematorium Hampstead at 12.00 noon on 3 July 2019.
A look back
The PRN and the packaging waste system really got off the ground in the years from 1993 to 1997. It had been developed at the Department for Environment, Transport and the Regions with the help of a group of industry individuals, largely under the eye of Henry Cleary, the first department official whose remit included the topic of packaging regulations.
It was in late 1995 that the Department (which was then also responsible for transport and the regions), under Secretary of State John Gummer, really recognised the importance of what was happening in Europe in terms of environmental and waste/recycling legislation and got agreement on the PRN system. Within its environment division, on 1 January 1996, it appointed its first ever head of producer responsibility – Sheila McKinley. She had arrived in London fresh from being a diplomat in Switzerland, and was to spend a short period cutting her environmental teeth through developing the Environmental Know-How fund before taking on the producer responsibility role.
Her diplomatic skills and experience were to prove essential in delivering the PRN system in the face of strong opinions from across the producer sector and with the practical solutions needed to get it up and running.
In 2005, when she received her OBE, alongside the first Advisory Committee on Packaging (ACP) chairman, John Turner, she told me that her first involvement in packaging had actually come a month before her official start at the Department, when she managed to “prise open the door and look in on the famous December 15 meeting” in 1995, when John Gummer threatened to hold “captains of industry” in a room at Defra – over Christmas if need be – until they agreed on a way ahead for the packaging recovery system.
Difficult
She recalled that at the time there was virtually no understanding of packaging and associated environmental responsibilities within British industry. “At the beginning, I felt it was difficult to talk to industry. They weren’t particularly thrilled at the idea of conversations about how much packaging they were using and the concept of targets.
“Some people insisted they were nothing to do with packaging – widget makers would say they made widgets and packaging for them was nothing to do with the widget maker.”
In that 2007 interview, marking her retirement, she said that the situation had changed completely. “Now everyone realises the significance about the packaging they use and I am struck by the constructive relationships we have had with industry. Since the early days companies have also realised the savings that can be made. I remember talking to one company and they found they had made great cost savings through minimising their packaging.”
During the period 2000-2006 as awareness of the packaging waste/PRN system grew, stresses and strains started to appear. After concerns about plastics and metals in late 2005/2006, she made it clear that PRNs were not the responsibility of Defra.
Responsibility
Speaking at a letsrecycle.com event, in June 2006 (see letsrecycle.com story) Mrs McKinley said: “I have been rung up to ask what I will do if there aren’t enough PRNs – but it’s not my responsibility. This is producer responsibility, it is for producers to make sure enough recycling is happening to meet their targets.
“Nobody is saying that a producer must go out and buy a truck and collect packaging waste, but we are saying that they must make sure there is sufficient collections going on to generate their PRNs.”
She added that the only sure way to avoid huge increases in PRN costs, was in planning ahead. “PRNs don’t just grow, they don’t just appear.”
Referring to the 15 December 1995 meeting, she said that the “The PRN was effectively born that day, although not with the idea of the financial allure that they have today.
Mrs McKinley explains: “The PRN in ’97 was meant to be a documentary evidence note. Producers said that they want confidence that this reprocessing is being carried out, so this led to accreditation. This gave the PRN a role as an anti-fraud mechanism. Further discussions followed over how end-use markets were going to have to be developed and so they became a channel for this.”
She also praised the support she had received from the Advisory Committee of Packaging: “The ACP chairman John Turner has made it action-orientated and he has helped set up the whole task force system with a very constructive set of people.”
Three ministers
Mrs McKinley worked for just three environment ministers during her packaging years, a relatively low number of ministers, largely because Michael Meacher served as environment minister for six years until 2003. Mrs McKinley reflects that “Michael Meacher had a very intellectual approach to things and was well-informed. He knew a lot about packaging.”
She then worked with Elliot Morley, as environment minister. He was followed by Ben Bradshaw who held the packaging brief in 2007, and Mrs McKinley said she enjoyed working with him.
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Source: letsrecycle.com Packaging
