PACKAGING RECYCLING
Voluntary EPR for sandwich packaging? In the second half of the recent BSA waste packaging-themed webinar, Gareth Morton (discovery manager at Ecosurety) outlined the nature of voluntary EPR-type (extended producer responsibility) collection schemes that the company runs, in the process highlighting parallels with, and for, the sandwich sector to consider. CHANGE IS COMING Ecosurety describe themselves as not just a company, but one with a conscience who want to accelerate change (becoming B Corp certified in 2020, the first compliance scheme to do so, and joining a global community of 4,000 organisations balancing purpose and profit and using business as a force for good). They pursue change via collaboration with like-minded businesses who want to make a difference to the world around us; working with them, looking at the data, and acting as a compliance scheme (the second largest in the UK). They also work with companies like Hubbub who aim to influence the public and take action by coming up with new and engaging ways of addressing the environmental issues of concern and making people change their behaviour. “About quarter of the UK’s packaging is made from flexible plastic packaging,
yet only around 6% is recycled, but that is set to change,” said Gareth Morton. “There has been a lot of pressure on businesses and since David Attenborough’s Blue Planet, consumer awareness has gone through the roof, now reflected in changing business priorities, and in turn affecting the government view on it. A lot of change is coming down the line, but the timetable of it remains to be seen. “The consultation response on EPR legislation is already somewhat delayed and likely won’t appear until after the elections in May, but the direction of travel is quite clear. At the moment, this means that there are two choices for organisations and businesses – the mandatory route (which is coming) or voluntary.” MANDATORY AND VOLUNTARY Mandatory requirements will be government-led and cover everyone in an all-encompassing system, whereas the voluntary systems are very different, being industry-led, collaborative - a group of the willing, targeted around the biggest issues in the form of a group of companies who have identified an issue of mutual concern and come together to address a solution, and in so doing very often come up with a voluntary EPR-type initiative.
Ecosurety runs two such schemes – Podback (a coffee pod recycling scheme) and the Flexible Plastics Fund (which aims to increase the recycling of flexible plastics). Taking the latter as an example, it started in May last year with five brands and now there are twenty brands involved who are funding the scheme, and it has two main initiatives. Currently, the main fund is targeting and incentivising the recycling of retail collected, front of store flexible plastics film through various provided containers. The second initiative which is in the pipeline are some trials on kerbside schemes to answer the vexing question of when EPR does come in, how are we going to collect all the flexible plastics from the kerbside given that there are numerous types of collection schemes from boxes to bags, to wheelie bins, and varying combinations of colour usage etc.? “The ambition of the brands involved in the Flexible Plastics Fund is to recycle all types of flexible plastic at kerbside. However, we are not there yet, which is why the retailer incentive scheme is being run and why there are plans for kerbside trials,” Gareth Morton explained. “One thing we need to know is whether or not the public is willing to recycle flexible plastics, but going by the amount of material that is collected by
