UK government launches DRS and EPR consultations as “polluter-pays” policies gather pace

25 Mar 2021 --- The UK’s Department of Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) is launching an industry consultation on introducing a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) and updated Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme. 

Defra is calling on industry stakeholders to contribute views on how the new schemes will run before 5 June, 2021. This will be the second consultation on EPR; the previous one – in 1997 – occurred before the devolution of Wales and Northern Ireland.

Robbie Staniforth, policy manager for the recycling compliance scheme Ecosurety, which has provided system designs for the Defra consultation, tells PackagingInsights the upcoming legislation is missing an important element. 

“The new EPR system makes producers responsible for funding collections of packaging from citizens’ homes and businesses. However, there is great regional disparity in what is collected from households and the materials recycled vary from business to business in England.” 

A consistent collection consultation has not been launched alongside the DRS and EPR consultations, however. 

“The pending consultation will harmonize what materials must be collected by local authorities, businesses and other organizations, ensuring producers are funding a holistic and comprehensive recycling system. As the consultation only affects England, it is not subject to the same ‘purdah’ restrictions that affect the devolved nations,” explains Staniforth. 

DRS could save billions in reduced landfill costs.The polluter pays
The EPR consultation will focus on specific policy proposals, including the scope of full net costs, producer obligations, scheme governance, regulation of the scheme, and packaging waste recycling targets, says Defra. 

The proposals set out in the consultation document will work together to create a scheme incentivizing producers to design easy-to-recycle packaging.

Defra will also aim to ensure producers pay the full net cost of managing this packaging once it becomes waste, in line with the “polluter-pays” principle. 

Stanforth believes Ecosurety’s design and future role in the EPR scheme could be instrumental. 

“As anticipated, the government has included elements of Ecosurety’s original system design from 2019, having taken a pragmatic approach to the overall governance.” 

“One option presented is for compliance schemes to manage the system for verifying, and paying for, recycling collections to take place in businesses and other organizations like schools and hospitals,” he adds. 

This option ensures the considerably higher costs to packaging producers are only paid out to recycling collectors when genuine recycling occurs, closing any potential loopholes.

DRS postponed by COVID-19 
According to Defra, UK consumers go through an estimated 14 billion plastic drinks bottles, 9 billion drinks cans, and 5 billion glass bottles annually. 

DRS could be implemented in the UK by 2024 at the earliest.A DRS scheme would give a monetary incentive to consumers to return these packaging materials for recycling. Whether it will cover all sizes of bottles is yet to be determined. 

The proposed DRS scheme will affect England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland already has a DRS in the works, intended for implementation in 2022.

However, Defra anticipates introduction in other UK nations will take substantially longer, aiming for 2024 “at the earliest.”

This, says Defra, is due to setbacks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. A previous consultation on DRS was held in 2019, after which widespread support led to a target of implementation by 2023. The new consultation will reconsider these plans in the “post-COVID-19 context.”

Staniforth, however, says this timeframe could easily be extended even further than 2024. 

“Given the time it has taken Scotland to make progress, the timeframe outlined by Defra for the rest of the UK still appears optimistic.” 

“The government has not proposed a final system design in the consultation, so there are still fundamental decisions to be made before progress can be made on appointing a scheme administrator and putting in place infrastructure for citizens to return their drinks containers.”

Public support 
A 2019 report showed that DRS would attract wide public support and generate billions of pounds sterling for the UK economy. 

A Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) survey found 72 percent of Brits would support a UK-wide system. As well as having environmental benefits, DRS could generate £2 billion (US$2.8 billion) for the economy over a decade, CPRE suggests.

By Louis Gore-Langton

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