The CPA Technical Report 19 (02) covered the government’s newly published Resource and Waste Strategy which aimed to make businesses and manufacturers pay the full cost for recycling and disposing of packaging waste by placing obligations on those responsible for producing waste to be more accountable.

Following this, DEFRA, in conjunction with the three devolved governments, has issued a Consultation on reforming the UK packaging producer responsibility system in which they are seeking views on introducing extended producer responsibility to reduce the amount of unnecessary and difficult to recycle packaging and to increase the amount of packaging that can be recycled. The consultation documentation can be viewed here.

The proposals being consulted on are:

  • The definition of full net cost recovery and approaches to recovering full net costs from producers
  • Incentives to encourage producers to design and use packaging that can be recycled
  • The businesses that would be obliged under a packaging extended producer responsibility system
  • Producer funding is used to pay local authorities for the collection and management of household packaging waste and to support the collection for recycling of household-like packaging ARISING IN THE COMMERCIAL WASTE
  • Mandatory labelling on all packaging to indicate if it is recyclable or not
  • New packaging waste recycling targets for 2025 and 2030 and interim targets for 2021 and 2022
  • Alternative models for the organisation and governance of a packaging extended producer responsibility system.

The consultation is split into three parts and 12 sub-sections. Not all sections may be relevant to all stakeholder so not all questions are mandatory.

The proposals will impact:

  • Manufacturers that use recycled materials
  • Businesses that produce and sell packaging products
  • Local authorities
  • Waste management companies that collect and manage packaging waste
  • Businesses that recycle or export for recycling packaging waste

The consultation closes on 13 May 2019