2024 EPR costs could have a severe impact on businesses’ viability

Joseph Doherty, managing director of Re-Gen Waste, and member of Defra’s Advisory Committee on Packaging, reflects on whether businesses should be accounting now for extended producer responsibility (EPR).

Arecent Defra Business Ready Forum webinar attended by over 700 stakeholders on EPR data collection and costs, left many deeply frustrated by the lack of information available to predict their likely costs.

Aside from the complications of the new system and the uncertainty over reporting requirements, much of the concern was focused on the lack of information on likely costs, especially after the huge increases in PRN prices that obligated producers faced in 2022.

The graph below illustrates the change in paper PRN prices over the last 6 years which shows that the weighted average price of paper PRNs in 2022 was over five times higher than in 2021 and double the average in 2019.The previous most expensive year since the regulations began. The graph also highlights the volatility and unpredictability of PRN prices, making budgeting almost impossible.