EPR will move the full cost of dealing with household packaging waste away from local taxpayers and councils to the packaging producers (applying the ‘polluter pays principle’), giving producers responsibility for the costs of their packaging throughout its life cycle. This will encourage producers to reduce their use of packaging and use packaging which is easier to recycle. Producers will pay more for less recyclable packaging, incentivising packaging that uses less material and is easier to recycle. Producers will also be expected to meet ambitious new recycling targets and use clear unambiguous labelling of recyclability to make it easy for consumers to do the right thing.
Key aims of EPR for packaging include:
- Increase recycling rates of packaging to 76%.
- Reduce waste and non-recyclable material being placed on the market.
- Shift costs of managing household and street-binned packaging waste to producers of packaging.
- Clearer consumer labelling.
- Modulated producer fees by 2026.
- Mandate collection of flexible plastics for recycling by 2027.
Consultations on EPR for packaging took place in 2019 and 2021, with a government response published in March 2022. More recently, a draft of the main UK-wide Statutory Instrument that will implement key obligations under EPR was consulted on in 2023. Under current timelines this legislation should be made later in 2024.
For Northern Ireland, there is an obligation under EU Directive 94/62/EC on Packaging and Packaging Waste to introduce EPR for packaging, as this Directive is listed in Annex II to the Northern Ireland Protocol/Windsor Framework.
Type of Change
Statutory.
Affected Stakeholders
- Packaging producers
- Waste management organisations
- Waste reprocessors
- Local authorities
Changes
- Increase recycling rates of packaging to 76%.
- Reduce waste and non-recyclable material being placed on the market.
- Shift costs of managing household and street-binned packaging waste to producers of packaging.
- Clearer consumer labelling.
- Modulated producer fees by 2026.
- Mandate collection of flexible plastics for recycling by 2027.
Status
Producers are already mandated to report packaging data for 2023 for the purposes of EPR for packaging under the Packaging Waste (Data Reporting) (No.2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2023 (and subsequent amendments).
Responses received from the consultation on the draft SI are under review and the SI is in its final stages of drafting. Once the legislation is in place, a formal Scheme Administrator body can be established, and producer fees will be required from October 2025.
Expected Timeline
Implementation of EPR for packaging from 2025.