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Updated Jul 28, 2023

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Consultation on Draft Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations

The Government has published a Consultation to gather views on the new Draft Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024.

Following various consultations in 2019 and 2021, the Government confirmed the proposal to introduce extended producer responsibility (EPR) for packaging, and have developed Draft Regulations for this.

EPR will require businesses to pay the full costs of dealing with the packaging they supply and use when it becomes waste. The intention of this is to improve efficiency by placing responsibility on businesses for the environmental impact of their packaging, and incentivise recyclability and reuse of packaging, in turn encouraging more domestic reprocessing and overall system improvements and savings.

Data Regulations

A group of "Data Regulations" published earlier this year, set out the first stages of an EPR scheme for packaging. These consist of the:

  • Packaging Waste (Data Reporting) (England) Regulations SI 2023/219;
  • Packaging Waste (Data Reporting) (Scotland) Regulations SSI 2023/7;
  • Packaging Waste (Data Collection and Reporting) (Wales) Regulations SI 2023/798;
  • Packaging Waste (Data Reporting) (No.2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) SR 2023/25.

This set of Regulations require obligated producers to collect and/or report data from:

  • March 2023 for England;
  • 28 February 2023 for Scotland and Northern Ireland; 
  • 17 July 2023 for Wales; or
  • January 2023 if the data is available in all nations,

on the amount and type of packaging that they supply. This data is required to calculate the disposal fees for the collection and sorting of packaging for recycling and the collection and disposal of packaging in residual waste that these producers will be required to pay. It will also be used to calculate producers recycling obligations.

Draft Producer Responsibility Obligations Regulations

The new Draft Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations set out obligations for producers to continue to collect and report data. These requirements mirror the requirements in the Data Regulations 2023 subject to amendments that address small gaps in the data collection and reporting obligations.

The Draft Regulations also include provisions to:

  • enable the appointment of a Scheme Administrator;
  • allow a Scheme Administrator to raise fees from obligated producers to cover local authority costs for the management of household and binned packaging waste, the costs of public information campaigns, and its operational costs;
  • set recycling targets on producers covering all types of packaging waste;
  • require certain types of packaging to be labelled to indicate recyclability;
  • introduce a mandatory takeback and recycling requirement for fibre-based composite cups;
  • require all reprocessors and exporters of packaging waste to register with a regulator and to report data, and, for those that choose to, to become accredited and issue recycling evidence;
  • enable regulators to effectively monitor compliance and enforce the Regulations.

If these Draft Regulations are approved by Parliament, they will revoke and replace the:

Consultation

The Consultation into the Draft Regulations is seeking views on:

  • the clarity of the definitions of the responsibilities placed on producers, exporters, reprocessors, compliance schemes, the Scheme Administrator and the regulators, the key considerations for local authorities;
  • the feasibility of the operational processes required to meet the obligations as set out in the Draft Regulations as they apply to organisations;
  • the completeness of the Draft Regulations as the basis for the implementation of EPR for packaging as per the confirmed policy intent; and
  • any unintended consequences of the Draft Regulations as a whole.

At this stage there are no set commencement years for the Draft Regulations, but they do set out dates and months for the data reporting cycle.

Next steps

The Consultation on the Draft Regulations will run until 9 October 2023, then there will be a period where the Government will consider responses and make any amendments to them.

Currently the Government intend to have the updated Draft Regulations notified to the World Trade Organisation and the EU in Spring 2024.

For more information, see the:


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