Plastic is a blessing and a curse. Since the 1950s, we have seen an explosion in the production of this highly convenient, versatile, lightweight and durable material. The world currently produces an estimated 380 million tonnes of plastic every year.
But the very durability of plastic means we also face a monumental problem. The UK alone produces 2.5 million tonnes of plastic packaging waste. We send around 60% of this waste abroad, much of it to countries such as Turkey, where some of it is illegally dumped and burned – with dreadful consequences for the environment and human health.
Earlier this month, my cross-party parliamentary scrutiny committee, which holds the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to account, recommended a total ban on the export of UK plastic waste by 2027. It is not right for us to make our waste someone else’s problem – and, what’s more, exporting waste represents a lost opportunity to invest in domestic recycling facilities.
But banning the export of plastic waste alone will not solve the issue. We also need to produce less plastic, and reuse it more.
The key proposed government policy here is Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). The system of fees to be paid by the producers of plastic packaging, which is funnelled to the local authorities that deal with waste, is a way of ‘making the polluter pay’.
To their credit, many businesses and producers welcomed the idea of EPR. They told my committee if the system was well designed, it could lead to more sustainable packaging designs in line with the government’s laudable goal of making all packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025.
The fees paid by producers of packaging waste would provide a powerful incentive to reduce the amount on the market, make packaging more recyclable, and promote the use of ‘refill and reuse’ containers. This would reward those already doing the right thing.
But there’s a problem: the slow pace of the government’s planned introduction of EPR.
It was first planned for 2023. That slipped to 2024, and we then learnt the full EPR fee structure to ‘make polluters pay’ would not come into force until 2025. Now there are suggestions it might even be delayed further due to the cost of living crisis. These delays are clearly in conflict with the government’s own target of making all packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025.
Meanwhile, businesses told us they cannot prepare due to the lack of any detail about the EPR fees to be levied. Companies need certainty and a level playing field on which to compete. If they don’t have this framework, it is unlikely the government’s 2025 target, or any meaningful change in packaging design, will be achieved in the short term.
We recommend the government mount a transparent consultation on EPR fees early next year, and have the full EPR system up and running by 2024.
Timing is not the only problem. Boris Johnson’s government suggested various measures in March 2022 that watered down earlier EPR proposals, including increasing the annual turnover threshold above which businesses should pay fees.
My committee thinks exempting a large number of smaller producers of packaging waste could undermine the scheme. We think producers placing one tonne or more of plastic packaging on the market should pay for the cost of its disposal. But we also understand this will be harder for smaller businesses – so we suggest giving them a bit more time to adapt.
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