LATEST DEVELOPMENTS ON EPR FOR PACKAGING
The UK Government’s Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging regulations aim to place responsibility on businesses for the environmental impact of their packaging. This is designed to incentivise appropriate use of packaging and the use of recyclable and reusable packaging. It is also intended to provide a revenue stream for local authorities to manage waste.
In late July 2023, after lobbying from industry over the lack of detail regarding how the scheme would work, the Government jointly with devolved administrations announced it would delay the introduction of the producer EPR payments for one year. These will not now apply until October 2025. See statement here.
However companies are still required to report and submit their packaging data for 2023, which will be considered a “dry run”. See information here.
Defra has issued a new Call for Evidence consultation seeking feedback from industry on the proposed implementation arrangements. The deadline for comments is 9 October 2023. Find the 28 page consultation documents here. (the main pages are 11-26).
The EPR Regulatory Position Statements do not impact any obligations member companies may have under The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2007 (legislation.gov.uk) and if obligated under these regulations it will still be necessary to continue to comply throughout 2024.
TTA is grateful to the Construction Products Association (CPA) for the above information.
CPA continues to lobby the Government regarding concerns over the definition of household waste – see page 14 of the consultation document. The CPA does not accept the assumption of The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) that construction product packaging waste sold through builders merchants will end up primarily in the household waste stream, rather than in a business waste stream. This is important because the purpose of the EPR is to provide a revenue from producers to local authorities to help them meet the costs of waste management coming from the household waste stream (such as food and drink packaging). If packaging waste is deemed as business waste then it is not currently within scope of the new EPR Regulations.