Well packaged?

PackUK – the scheme administrator for Packaging Extended Producer Responsibility – formally launched today (21 January 2025) and will implement the UK’s new Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging (pEPR) programme.

The EPR Statutory Instrument came into force on 1 January and PackUK is a key part of the transition to a circular economy.

We’re told the process will modernise the UK’s approach to packaging and packaging waste and implement tried and tested international best practice. Together the packaging reforms will stimulate investment in recycling infrastructure and create green jobs, alongside being key to reducing the UK’s emissions from landfill by an estimated 32 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent by 2037.

PackUK will shift the cost of managing household packaging waste from taxpayers and local authorities to those businesses who use and supply the packaging.

Under pEPR, packaging producers will face increased costs for compliance. Large producers have to pay EPR fees that cover the costs of household packaging waste collections and other associated activities performed by the scheme administrator and regulators.

Ever since pEPR was raised, the whole process has been an ongoing negotiation, which is far seeing agreement on both sides except from ongoing policy announcements.

The EPR fee is the cause of much concern for producers, as many want to budget effectively for their compliance costs.

The Metal Packaging Manufacturers Association, MPMA, hasn’t taken long to criticise Defra, Shortly after the PackUK launch it is claiming Defra is ‘ignoring reasoned representation for the case of fairly-priced EPR fees’.

MPMA is concerned the current EPR methodology has not been thought through and fails to reflect the true collection, sorting costs and recycling rates of different packaging materials. The EPR fees set by Defra for steel cans are much higher than competing packaging materials like plastic and fibre composite, the MPMA adds.

This is just one association which, although more than happy to work with Defra, feels its concerns are not being taken onboard. More will follow.

As Jason Galley, director and chief executive of the Metal Packaging Manufacturers Association (MPMA) points out, in the MPMA’s response to the launch of PackUK, let’s hope that the PackUK Steering Group and the Minister for the Circular Economy, Mary Creagh, focus on resolving the situation which “without intervention will negatively impact the creation of a true circular economy”.

If challenges can be overcome, this milestone moment could lead to a number of changes, including improved recycling of materials placed on the market to the potential to incentivise innovation in the packaging world and driving waste prevention.

Related content

Leave a reply

Food and Drink Technology