Source · Select Committees · Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Recommendation 12
12
Accepted
Paragraph: 58
Achieving the widespread adoption of reusable packaging and refill would require fundamental changes to a...
Conclusion
Achieving the widespread adoption of reusable packaging and refill would require fundamental changes to a large part of our economy and to the mindset and behaviour of companies and consumers—it will not be possible to deliver this using the Extended Producer Responsibility reforms alone.
Government Response Summary
The government agrees that widespread adoption of reusable packaging will require fundamental changes to business and consumer behaviours, and highlights their work with WRAP, funding for reuse and refill pilots, and data collection efforts.
Paragraph Reference:
58
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The government agrees with the Committee that widespread adoption of reusable packaging will require fundamental changes to business and consumer behaviours. The government is working to stimulate innovation and overcome logistical and behavioural challenges around implementing reuse and refill schemes. To better understand and overcome these challenges, we ran a Call for Evidence on commonly littered and problematic plastic items3 to also ask questions around how we can incentivise a shift towards reusable and refillable packaging. The summary of these responses will be published shortly. The government has also provided funding to the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), who run the UK Plastics Pact. Through our funding and industry fees, WRAP is encouraging businesses and consumers to adopt reuse systems and habits. They provide one-to-one support to Plastic Pact members working on refill and reuse pilots and are helping members to complete a trial on reusable packaging or a trial to encourage the adoption of reuse behaviours by consumers. Nearly half (44%) of pact members are already running pilots and trials in this space, and a further third (33%) plan to do so by 2025. The UK Plastics Pact is convening sector specific roundtables and gathering insights from trials in the UK and overseas to develop guidance for members on implementing successful reuse models. The UK Plastics Pact started to gather data for reuse/refill in 2020 and we have seen a 15% increase in the amount of reusable primary packaging placed on the market between 2020 and 2021. 3 Call for evidence on commonly littered and problematic plastic items - Defra - Citizen Space