BUSINESSES URGED TO GET READY FOR REFORMS TO CUT PACKAGING WASTE

Reporting requirements for the Extended Producer Responsibility scheme for packaging came into force on the 17th March.

Plans to make it easier for consumers to recycle packaging waste now move a step closer, as reporting requirements for Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) come into force.

Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging (pEPR) will make firms that supply household packaging responsible for the costs of dealing with packaging waste, moving costs away councils and council taxpayers.

Producers will be required to pay for the collection and disposal costs of household packaging they supply when it becomes waste. This will encourage producers to reduce the amount of packaging they place on the market, and to improve the recyclability of their packaging – in turn ensuring less waste ends up in the natural environment.

From 17th March 2023, all obligated packaging producers in England, Northern Ireland and Scotland must collect information on the amount and type of packaging they have supplied during 2023. Wales will follow shortly.

Producers with a turnover of greater than £2 million and who handle more than 50 tonnes of packaging each year must also report this information to the Environment Agency twice a year.

The first reports must be submitted from 1 October 2023. Environment Minister Rebecca Pow said: “We need to stem the flow of packaging which goes unrecycled and instead is lost forever to landfill and incineration.

As set out in our Environmental Improvement Plan, these reforms will encourage businesses to increase their use of recyclable materials, shifting costs away from the taxpayer and supporting our work to protect the environment from the scourge of waste.”

Deep Sagar, chair of the Advisory Committee on Packaging, said:

“Packaging materials that are not recycled back into new packaging harm our natural environment. Councils have to spend more managing that waste and the public cannot enjoy spaces such as parks and high streets as they should.

Extended Producer Responsibility will reduce that waste. It will make goods producers pay for collection of all packaging waste encouraging them to reduce or recycle more packaging. I look forward to supporting government and industry in making this smart policy work for the public and improving the environment.”

Claire Shrewsbury, Director of Insights and Innovation at the Waste and Resources Action Programme, said:

“The introduction of an EPR for packaging could be a game-changer. If done effectively, it could reduce the impact packaging has on the environment by regulating material use and increasing recycling.

For EPR to work it must serve all – producers, local and central government, recyclers, and the public. We’ve been working with these key groups since 2018 to help collaboration on pEPR.

In 2020, 12 million tonnes of packaging was placed on the UK market, some of which contains plastics that are hard to recycle. Incentivising producers to use better, more recyclable materials will help to stem this tide of waste.”

Producers will be required to pay an EPR fee towards the costs of collecting and managing household packaging waste, currently borne by local authorities. This shift of cost is estimated to be around £1.2 billion per year across all local authorities, once EPR is fully operational.

Before decisions are made about the final shape of the scheme, we need to gather information from businesses that will be affected. This data will provide the basis for establishing the packaging waste management fees individual producers will pay in 2024, when pEPR comes into force.

We are engaging with businesses and local authorities to shape the future vision of waste reforms through industrywide sprint events, deep dive sessions and fortnightly forums. This will help ensure business readiness for our planned reforms from 2024, ensuring industry are involved in shaping the long-term future of EPR.

These plans build on our wider efforts to eliminate avoidable plastic waste. Earlier this year we announced that a ban on single-use plastic plates, trays, bowls, cutlery, balloon sticks, expanded and extruded polystyrene food and drinks containers, including cups, will be introduced in England from October 2023.

We have also announced further details on the implementation of our Deposit Return Scheme for drinks containers to boost recycling and clamp down on plastic pollution and litter.

We have already introduced a ban on microbeads in rinse-off personal care products, restrictions on the supply of single-use plastic straws, drink stirrers and cotton buds, and our world-leading Plastic Packaging Tax introduced last year.

Meanwhile, our single-use plastic carrier bag charge has successfully cut sales by over 97% in the main supermarkets.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:

The waste and recycling sector is a critical part of our economy and plays a crucial role in ensuring a sustainably led future. However, it is also a sector that is fraught with danger and risks. From hazardous waste to workplace accidents, the waste and recycling sector presents a significant challenge for workers and businesses when it comes to safety.

As with any large-scale waste operation, the use of heavy plant machinery and vehicles alongside operatives and ground workers, will always present a safety risk. No site, even with the highest health and safety standards and best practices is 100% free from danger. In fact, between 2017 and 2021, the waste and recycling industry had the highest rate of fatal injuries per year – with 70% of all fatalities linked to workers being struck by vehicles or through contact with moving machinery.

In a report from the HSE in 2022, they highlighted the increased dangers associated with the waste and recycling sector - between 2017/18 and 2020/21, the waste sector recorded an average of five fatal injuries per year, representing 4.58 fatal injuries per 100,000 workers, and between 2015-2021 there was an estimated 3,000 workers each year who sustained an injury at work.

The HSE outlined: “The waste and recycling sector has an elevated rate of fatal injury [between 2017/18 and 2020/21]. The fatal injury rate (4.61 per 100,000 workers) is around 11 times higher than all industry rate.

The most common cause of injury or fatality was a worker being struck by a moving vehicle with 37% of all confirmed fatalities. Second was contact with moving machinery at 33%.

Although existing control methods such as physical barriers, warning signs and correct health and safety training for workers are already in place, they are never 100% effective due to human error, on-site distractions, and other mitigating circumstances.

So, what can be done to increase the control measures already in place to help make the industry even safer and reduce the number of injuries and fatalities?

One way to increase your safety measures is to implement a plant proximity solution. A proximity solution provides dynamic virtual barriers intended to warn workers and plant operators of any incursion into defined safety exclusion zones, and help avoid worker/vehicle/machinery related deaths and injuries.

One of the best on the market is the Zonr Plant Proximity Solution. Zonr creates virtual safety exclusion zones that warn your workers when they’re getting too close to dangerous or moving equipment. The Zonr system creates a virtual barrier around anything you attach a sensor to, using UWB technology (the same technology found in an Apple Tag). This allows workers and plant operators to have an extra layer of safety protection while on site.