The success of television programmes such as Sir David Attenborough’s Blue Planet has helped to demonstrate the problem of pollution in our natural ecosystems to huge global audiences.
Ordinary people, politicians and companies alike have been galvanised into tackling the damage that unrecycled plastic and other packaging waste products are causing our oceans, forests and wildlife. But viable solutions can be tricky when they hit the pressures of a volatile economy.
According to Beyondly (formerly Comply Direct), a market-leading compliance scheme and environmental consultancy that’s also a certified B Corporation, the reform of the UK packaging waste regulations to apply the extended producer responsibility (EPR) approach is a welcome enhancement that will help to propel the nation towards a circular economy.
Under the existing regulations, multiple parties along the supply chain must pay a proportion of the recycling costs for the packaging they make, use or sell. But under the reformed packaging compliance system – known as packaging EPR (pEPR) – the full net cost of household waste management and recycling will sit with one party in the supply chain.
As a result of this legislative change, for the first time it will be brand-owners, not the taxpayer, that must pay the full net costs arising from the collection, sorting and recycling of household packaging waste through their waste management fees.
Catherine Guy, packaging relationship manager at Beyondly, explains: “The hope is that brand-owners faced with this new reality of a greater financial obligation will strive harder to design their packaging to make it easier for it to be reused, dismantled and/or recycled at the end of life.”
Under pEPR, more brand-owners will fall within scope. A lower threshold is being introduced to integrate smaller companies into the packaging compliance system: those with a £1m-plus annual turnover that place 25 tonnes or more packaging on the UK market each year.
The household packaging waste collection service was estimated in 2019 to be costing UK local authorities about £1.7bn a year, which under pEPR will be funded by brand-owners and other obligated companies. Thus, the financial obligations under pEPR will be significant for brand-owners, which could lead to higher prices for the consumer if they look to pass on these extra costs. But the waste management fee element of pEPR has been delayed until October 2025.
In the drive towards a circular economy, extended producer responsibility is a welcome enhancement to the existing UK packaging waste regulations
“It appears that the government needs more time to calculate the rate of the waste management fees under pEPR,” Guy notes.
Nonetheless, the pEPR requirement to supply the regulator with more frequent and detailed packaging data, such as its type, weight and the country into which it’s been sold – nation data – is already in force.
Beyondly can help brand-owner producers in all sectors – from food and beverage to retail, beauty and manufacturing – with data collection. It can also assume responsibility for an organisation’s legal obligations for packaging and mitigate its financial obligation before 2025.
“Brand-owners know what they want to do when it comes to being more sustainable, but they struggle to find ways to achieve it – and pEPR is complex and intricate,” Guy says. “We can help businesses optimise their packaging design to achieve greater recyclability, as well as prepare for the modulation of waste management fees under pEPR. We want to increase their confidence and help producers get future-proofed.”
The modulation of waste management fees means that fees charged to brand-owners will be adjusted based on the recyclability of their packaging. This will result in lower fees for companies using more recyclable packaging. Fee modulation is expected to be introduced in 2026, based on packaging placed on the UK market in 2025.
“That will lead to increased scrutiny of data such as the type of polymer used in your plastic packaging, but it brings the benefit of potentially reducing the financial burden,” Guy says.
The incentive and opportunity to improve how we live on our planet is there. We must all grasp it.
For more information, please visit beyond.ly
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