Packaging recycling
Get ready for new regulations Extended plastic recycling regulations on the horizon will significantly impact garden centre businesses. Jane Lawler explains.
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n the garden products supply chain, we think of ourselves as a largely environmentally friendly business sector and we take sustainability pretty seriously. This includes our attitudes to reducing packaging waste and promoting recycling.There’s been a great deal of progress in recent years and some innovative strategies for collecting and recycling compost bags, for example. All garden businesses turning over more than £2 million and handling 50 tonnes of packaging already fall under the 2007 Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations. These regulations minimise waste and promote recycling and re-use, and all obligated businesses contribute to the cost of collecting and managing the waste packaging they handle. The bill for recycling packaging is shared out between all the businesses in the supply chain, from the producer right through to the retailer. Most businesses have become used to the arduous task of collecting data every year and the associated levy they have to pay through the Packaging Recovery Note (PRN) scheme.
16 GTN’s Sustainability Directory 2022
In the coming years, the regulations will be extended to incentivise even more sustainable product and packaging design, increase re-use and significantly increase collection and recycling rates. There will be four core initiatives: The Plastic Packaging Tax. Already in force, driving an extra £200 per tonne on any plastic packaging that does not contain 30% recycled content. The introduction of deposit return schemes designed primarily for food and especially drink packaging – although there could be some interesting opportunities for garden businesses here too. Compost and aggregate sales could possibly be run on a deposit return scheme, using returnable bulk bags. All local authorities will have to provide the same basic set of collection and recycling, both for households and businesses. Great news for frustrated consumers who struggle with the inconsistencies of kerbside waste collections and recycling. The full net cost of the recovery of the packaging will be collected from obligated companies.
Jane Lawler, a panel member of the wellattended GIMA conference to introduce and explain the new regulations.
This fourth element will have the most significant impact on manufacturers, importers, wholesalers and retailers of garden products. Estimates of the overall costs of the current scheme range from £230 - £300m, shared across the supply chain. The real cost of recovering all packaging in the UK (currently met from local tax payers and councils) is estimated to be closer to £1.7 billion. The additional costs for collection schemes and administration of the new EPR is estimated to be up to a further £800m so in future, compliance costs for businesses could be between 6x and 10x what they are currently. Additionally, from 2023 the new scheme will make the UK brand owner (or importer) of the packaged product solely responsible for meeting 100% of the cost of collecting, recycling or disposing of the packaging. It’s early days and the implementation of the new scheme is already running behind schedule. Originally planned for 2023, the most recent consultation response from government lays out a phased introduction beginning in 2024. The bad news is that the levy placed on obligated companies is most likely to be based on the historic sales of product packaging. This means anyone likely to be affected needs to
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