Recommendation 26

HM Government Accepted

The government has already published plans for monitoring and evaluating progress on the Resources and Waste Strategy. A Monitoring Progress report has been published annually since 2020. The UK packaging recycling rates are published annually in the Defra publication UK Statistics on Waste. There will be a legal requirement to report annually on progress against the Environmental Improvement Plan, which must include consideration of any progress made towards achieving long-term and interim targets in the area of resource efficiency and waste reduction. Extended producer responsibility for packaging The introduction of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for packaging is a welcome reform that has the potential to drive progress towards a more sustainable plastics economy. However, the lack of information about the EPR fee scheme and the two- year delay in implementation mean that achieving meaningful change in packaging design in the short term is unlikely. Despite the former Minister’s assurances that the scheme will be fully operational by 2024, we cannot see how that can be the case if the modulated fees that underpin the scheme will not fully be in place until 2025. To make progress towards 2025 targets, the delivery of EPR needs to be expedited and information for businesses provided well in advance to give them time to adapt. 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. (Paragraphs 34 and 35) 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. We agree that it is best to continue the Packaging Waste Recovery Note (PRN) system in the short term to ensure some continued funding for the reprocessing sector. Government should ensure that any temporary dual-running system, and the added complexity it brings, does not become permanent. We welcome the previous Government’s proposal for a taskforce to help navigate the way to a full EPR system in the future, but we are concerned about the lack of a clear timetable for this change. We recommend that the Government develops a clear exit strategy for any dual running of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) alongside a legacy Packaging Waste Recovery Note system. This exit strategy should be published no more than a year after EPR is introduced. This strategy should explain how we will arrive at a comprehensive EPR system that covers the total costs of managing plastic waste— including commercial waste. This would be an appropriate job for the previously proposed EPR Taskforce. (Paragraphs 39 and 40) The government welcomes the Committee’s support for the retention of the PRN system as an interim solution for ensuring that producers have a means to evidence that their recycling obligations have been met and ensuring that they contribute to the cost of reprocessing packaging waste from both households and businesses. However, the government disagrees with the Committee’s recommendation to publish an exit strategy no more than a year after EPR is introduced. This is because we want to make sure we put the right measures in place at the right time. Bringing forward charges for packaging produced by busi