Source · Select Committees · Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Recommendation 6
6
Accepted in Part
Paragraph: 35
We recommend that the new Government reaffirms its commitment to Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging...
Recommendation
We recommend that the new Government reaffirms its commitment to Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging and a re-accelerated process to implement the system in order to meet the targets set for 2025. This requires publication of a consultation on EPR fees and any accompanying guidance in early 2023 and the introduction of the fee system by 2024.
Government Response Summary
The government remains committed to introducing pEPR on a phased basis from 2024, focusing initially on payments for household packaging waste managed by local authorities, with modulated fees introduced at a later date. They will engage with producers and stakeholders on a granular list of packaging and how modulated fees will be applied, and will publish for feedback their best estimate of these rates.
Paragraph Reference:
35
Government Response
Accepted in Part
HM Government
Accepted in Part
The government remains committed to introducing pEPR on a phased basis from 2024. It will focus initially on payments by producers for household packaging waste managed by local authorities. Modulated fees that take account of recyclability will be introduced at a later date, to incentivise producers to use packaging and packaging materials that can be recycled. This will limit complexity in the first year whilst the new arrangements bed in. To enable modulated fees, producers will need to report against a more granular list of packaging types from the 1 January 2024. In early 2023, Defra will engage producers and other stakeholders on this more granular list of packaging and how modulated fees will be applied to them. We are working on the design and set-up of the scheme in collaboration with businesses, local authorities and other stakeholders. The Packaging Waste (Data Reporting) (England) Regulations 2022 were laid in draft in Parliament in November 2022 and guidance, based on the draft Statutory Instrument, has been published to inform businesses of the packaging data they will need to collate and report for 2023. Webinars have been attended by 3500 industry representatives and further guidance and communications will follow. Although final fee rates cannot be known until producers have submitted all their data in April 2024, we will shortly publish for feedback our best estimate of these rates. We also continue to work with local authorities on the design of the scheme, having recently held workshops in Cardiff, Belfast, Leeds, Glasgow and London, which were attended by more than 200 local authorities.