Plans to make it easier for consumers to recycle packaging waste
move a step closer today, as reporting requirements for Extended
Producer Responsibility (EPR) come into force.
Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging (pEPR) will make
firms that supply household packaging responsible for the costs
of dealing with packaging waste, moving costs away councils and
council taxpayers.
Producers will be required to pay for the collection and disposal
costs of household packaging they supply when it becomes waste.
This will encourage producers to reduce the amount of packaging
they place on the market, and to improve the recyclability of
their packaging – in turn ensuring less waste ends up in the
natural environment.
From today, all obligated packaging producers in England,
Northern Ireland and Scotland must collect information on the
amount and type of packaging they have supplied during 2023.
Wales will follow shortly.
Producers with a turnover of greater than £2 million and who
handle more than 50 tonnes of packaging each year must also
report this information to the Environment Agency twice a year.
The first reports must be submitted from 1 October 2023.
Environment Minister said:
We need to stem the flow of packaging which goes unrecycled and
instead is lost forever to landfill and incineration.
As set out in our Environmental Improvement Plan, these reforms
will encourage businesses to increase their use of recyclable
materials, shifting costs away from the taxpayer and supporting
our work to protect the environment from the scourge of waste.
Deep Sagar, chair of the Advisory Committee on Packaging,
said:
Packaging materials that are not recycled back into new packaging
harm our natural environment. Councils have to spend more
managing that waste and the public cannot enjoy spaces such as
parks and high streets as they should.
Extended Producer Responsibility will reduce that waste. It will
make goods producers pay for collection of all packaging waste
encouraging them to reduce or recycle more packaging. I look
forward to supporting government and industry in making this
smart policy work for the public and improving the environment.
Claire Shrewsbury, Director of Insights and Innovation at
the Waste and Resources Action Programme, said:
The introduction of an EPR for packaging could be a game-changer.
If done effectively, it could reduce the impact packaging has on
the environment by regulating material use and increasing
recycling.
For EPR to work it must serve all – producers, local and central
government, recyclers, and the public. We’ve been working with
these key groups since 2018 to help collaboration on pEPR.
In 2020, 12 million tonnes of packaging was placed on the UK
market, some of which contains plastics that are hard to recycle.
Incentivising producers to use better, more recyclable materials
will help to stem this tide of waste.
Producers will be required to pay an EPR fee towards the costs of
collecting and managing household packaging waste, currently
borne by local authorities. This shift of cost is estimated to be
around £1.2 billion per year across all local authorities, once
EPR is fully operational.
Before decisions are made about the final shape of the scheme, we
need to gather information from businesses that will be affected.
This data will provide the basis for establishing the packaging
waste management fees individual producers will pay in 2024, when
pEPR comes into force.
We are engaging with businesses and local authorities to shape
the future vision of waste reforms through industry-wide sprint
events, deep dive sessions and fortnightly forums. This will help
ensure business readiness for our planned reforms from 2024,
ensuring industry are involved in shaping the long-term future of
EPR.
These plans build on our wider efforts to eliminate avoidable
plastic waste. Earlier this year we announced that a ban on single-use plastic
plates, trays, bowls, cutlery, balloon sticks, expanded and
extruded polystyrene food and drinks containers, including
cups, will be introduced in England from October 2023.
We have also announced further details on the implementation of our
Deposit Return Scheme for drinks containers to boost
recycling and clamp down on plastic pollution and litter.
We have already introduced a ban on microbeads in rinse-off
personal care products, restrictions on the supply of single-use
plastic straws, drink stirrers and cotton buds, and our
world-leading Plastic Packaging Tax introduced last year.
Meanwhile, our single-use plastic carrier bag charge has
successfully cut sales by over 97% in the main supermarkets.
For further information, please see our specific guidance on
collecting data for packaging EPR, along with our wider guidance for
industry on GOV.UK.
