The new resources and waste strategy published by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), shows that the costs of meeting packaging recycling targets will be paid for by packaging producers.
By invoking the principle of ‘the polluter pays’ the Government will extend producer responsibility for packaging, which means that producers will pay the full costs of disposal for packaging they place on the market.
The strategy states that a consultation to reform the packaging waste regulations will be launched shortly with the intention to legislate by 2021, and to have reforms operational by 2023. The reformed system will aim to match or exceed the revised packaging recycling targets set by the EU for 2025 and 2030.
Within the current system, producers of packaging (raw material manufacturers, converters, pack-fillers, sellers and importers) are obligated to meet a share of the annual recycling targets. Producers, usually through compliance schemes, purchase packaging waste recovery notes (PRNs) from accredited reprocessors (or packaging waste export recovery notes, PERNs, from accredited exporters), as evidence that they have met their obligations.
In the current system, however, less than a tenth of the costs of managing household packaging waste are covered by producers. These reforms will change this with the full net costs being covered.
According to the strategy, the reforms to packaging waste regulations will incentivise the reduction of unnecessary and difficult to recycle packaging, the production of packaging that can be recycled, and the recycling of packaging back into the same or similar products.
However, it is the producers who will fund the management of packaging at the end of its life. Subject to consultation, this may include; collection, recycling, disposal, reduction of littering and fly-tipping, communications, data collection and reporting, compliance monitoring and enforcement.
There will also be mandatory labelling on packaging and improved communications which again is to be funded by producers. This forms part of another arm of Defra’s strategy, which is to better inform consumers. At present the UK uses the EU Ecolabel scheme but there is low take-up and few consumers recognise it. Meanwhile, private sector ecolabels have emerged that cover a range of aspects around environmental sustainability.
Efforts will be made address this confusion and ensure consumers are provided with better information, starting by working with key stakeholders including industry, trade associations and standard-setting bodies to develop options for a domestic ecolabel, before consulting more widely.
Defra has also commissioned research on the extent to which consumers given factual information up front then make more environmentally sustainable decisions, particularly when buying repairable, upgradable and/or recyclable products. Among the options available are multi-factor schemes that enable products to obtain an ecolabel; those that make consumer information on products mandatory; and schemes which provide different ratings – similar to current energy labelling.
