Extended Producer Responsibility

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is an environmental policy approach through which a producer's responsibility for a product is extended to the post-use stage.

Context

DEFRA set out in its Resources and Waste Strategy its intention to review existing Producer Responsibility systems (between 2021 and 2024). The consultation process culminated with a publication of the outputs in March 2022 (see below) and the obligation to commence collecting data started in January 2023 for packaging waste.

Current Status

The statutory instrument placing a requirement on producers of packaging to collect and report data was placed in Parliament on 22nd November 2022 and guidance on how to collect packaging data was issued on the 24th November 2022, with obligated companies required to collect data from 1st January 2023. Webinar guidance was made available via YouTube in late November 2022.

Consultation Process

Context

The first stage consultation on reforming the UK packaging producer responsibility system opened in February and closed in May 2019. The second stage consultation opened in March 2021 and closed in June 2021. Guidance was published for businesses in how to prepare for EPR in October 2022 which was updated in March 2023.

This consultation was launched in parallel with consultations on the Consistency in Recycling Collections in England and the implementation of a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) in England, in conjunction with the devolved administration in Wales and DAERA in Northern Ireland.

In addition, future potential has been identified to develop new schemes for five new waste streams by 2025 (two by 2022):

• Textiles
• Bulky Waste
• Certain materials in the Construction and Demolition Waste sector
• Tyres
• Fishing gear

Consultation Response

It was initially believed the government would publish its responses to the consultations by the end of October 2021, however due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the deputy director for resources and waste at DEFRA said at RWM the way forward will be published "later this year or early next" . The actual consultation response was published in March 2022 with a review planned for the EPR system application to business wastes for 2026 to 2027. As part of this delayed implementation, the stated intention is to extend the PRN/PERN system, and a consultation on this was launched in parallel with the launch of the EPR consultation in March 2022.

Key Outputs from the Consultation

The summary of consultation responses was published on 26th March alongside more detailed analysis of the responses and the final impact assessment on the 29th March 2022. The key outputs to be taken forwards into implementation are as follows, although the detail and deliverability is highlighted being requiring detailed work:

• Implement EPR in a phased manner from 2024 focusing on household packaging waste
• Introduce modulated fees based on 'recyclability' from 2025 - in Northern Ireland and England this excludes littered packaging waste, but in Wales this may be included
• Continue with the current PRN system to demonstrate recycling obligations have been met (resulting in a consultation to improve the system, as noted above)
• Create a task force to explore payments for commercial waste
• Maintain the thresholds for Producer Responsibility Packaging Waste at £2m turnover and 50 tonnes of packaging, with a lower threshold of £1m and 25 tonnes for producers to report the packaging put on the market
• Compostable biodegradable packaging will be required to be given a 'do not recycle' label until evidence can be built to safely collect and compost it separately
• The scheme administrator (SA) will start to mobilise in 2023 and be fully operational by 2024 and likely to be within the public sector
• The EPR scheme will be reviewed after two years of operation and include the outputs from the task force on commercial waste (i.e. 2026/2027)
• The impact assessment shows the producer cost to be around £1.7bn each year, a reduction of £1bn on the previous scope of the consultation, which included commercial as well as household packaging waste

The key decisions taken include:

• Producers pay for the costs of managing household waste, with payments made to local authorities for the collection of that packaging waste
• Modulated fees to incentives the use of recyclable packaging from 2025
• Mandatory takeback scheme for the collection and recycling of fibre-based composite cups (disposable coffee cups)
• Mandatory labelling of packaging for 'recyclability' with a single labelling format by March 2026, with plastic films by March 2027
• Addition of plastic film recycling for households and businesses by 31st March 2027 (to be added to the scope of consistency in collection)
• Annual packaging waste recycling targets to 2030 (targets set out in the document are summarised in the Packaging Waste page on WikiWaste against historical targets, which may exclude wood in the future)
• Enhanced sampling to improve data on packaging waste (changes to frequency set out in the MRF Code of Practice)
• Requirements for certain producers to report packaging placed on the market from 2024
• Strengthened requirements on reprocessors and exports
• Appointment of Scheme Administrator during 2023 and full operation by 2024