The Food and Drink Federation, the British Retail Consortium, and INCPEN have spoken to Circular Online following a report the trade bodies lobbied for extended producer responsibility for packaging to be deferred for a year.
Extended producer responsibility for packaging (pEPR) was due to begin this month but was delayed for 12 months by the Conservative government last year.
The EPR scheme aims to ensure producers are responsible for the entire cost of recycling the packaging they place onto the market by charging fees based on the materials they use. The scheme encourages producers to design more sustainable and recyclable packaging.
According to a report in the Observer, the Food and Drink Federation (FDF), the British Retail Consortium (BRC), and INCPEN lobbied for the scheme to be delayed.
On 15 March last year, officials at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) attended a stakeholder meeting with the FDF, the BRC and the INCPEN.
According to internal government records seen by the Observer and Democracy for Sale, the trade bodies warned of “inflationary pressures, consumer value for money concerns and the high costs for industry”.
The report says the documents show that an unnamed representative “suggested that a pause was needed to reflect on the industry concerns and review how to move forward”.
Despite a civil servant saying that “ministers were not minded to delay, Defra confirmed pEPR had been deferred for 12 months, until October 2025, in July last year.
How has Defra responded?
A Defra spokesperson said: “These reforms will create 21,000 jobs and stimulate more than £10 billion investment in the recycling sector over the next decade.
“It means packaging producers, rather than the taxpayer, covering the costs of managing waste.
“We have always worked closely with a broad range of environmental groups, businesses and stakeholders to deliver this programme.”
Defra said the decision to defer the scheme last year was based on a range of delivery considerations.
The revenue from fees will generate more than £1 billion annually to support local collection and disposal services, including recycling services, Defra said.
The Food and Drink Federation’s response
A Spokesperson for the Food and Drink Federation said: “Food and drink manufacturers take their sustainability commitments incredibly seriously.
“We have been working with Government for years to attempt to roll out a transformational EPR scheme that would truly deliver a circular economy in the UK and improve Britain’s flatlining recycling rates.”
The FDF told Circular Online it supported the government’s decision to defer the start of EPR, because it was not ready to launch any scheme.
The Federation said there was no way of launching EPR to the original timescales as Defra didn’t have producer data, had done no modelling on local authority costs to be covered by producer fees, and no scheme administrator was in place.
The government promised to use the deferral to resolve these issues and the FDF said it is confident it has made some progress since then.
The FDF said it “strongly supports” EPR for packaging because it wants to see a circular economy for packaging recycling.
Director of Corporate Affairs and Packaging at the FDF Jim Bligh explored these issues in CIWM’s Beyond Waste Podcast in July.
Circular Online asked the FDF what its concerns were about EPR in its current form and it called for producers to have responsibility for operating various elements of EPR in order to meet shared environmental objectives.
Paul Vanston’s, CEO of INCPEN, statement to Circular Online
Paul Vanston, CEO of INCPEN, told Circular Online: “The events are more innocuous than portrayed. Back in March 2023, the Defra SPRINT Workshops were going in full swing involving local government, waste management, producers, and recyclers.
“On the 14 March, there was a SPRINT Workshop with officials, and with everyone from across sectors focused on what was needed for the previous government to make progress on the reforms.
“The 15 March meeting with officials similarly focused on surveying the state of readiness at that time, and what was needed to bring things on track. The context of what was happening at the time is important to recall.
“Back in March 2023, the chances of 2024 remaining the EPR ‘go live’ year were dependent on an array of big tasks being completed on time.
“These included finalising the drafting of the EPR Regulations for the purposes of scrutiny by the WTO and the EU Commission, and then approval by Parliament; developing the EPR Base Fees and the Councils Payments systems with meaningful stakeholder inputs; delivering the Recyclability Assessments Methodologies (RAM) for the various materials; and setting up the EPR Scheme Administrator to be ready for 2024 operations.
“Here’s the crux. To a significant number of stakeholders engaging with the previous government, it was obvious in spring 2023 that the EPR reforms were not in a sufficient state of preparedness for 2024 to remain a feasible timeline for full EPR ‘go live’.
“As a natural consequence, 2025 became what was feasible so long as Defra’s challenges were resolved. The colleagues who had that view – me included – were probably proved right in the reports by the National Audit Office, the Infrastructure & Projects Authority and Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee during 2023 about DEFRA’s preparedness challenges on the packaging reforms.
“But that was March 2023, some 19 months ago. Things have changed markedly since then. It’s my view that Emma Bourne OBE coming in as Director of Resources and Waste at DEFRA in April 2023 really helped to push the reforms forward.
Back in March 2023, the chances of 2024 remaining the EPR ‘go live’ year were dependent on an array of big tasks being completed on time.
“She brought the Defra teams together. She brought in the capacity and skills needed to get things done. She has overseen a period of vastly better DEFRA preparedness in 2024/25 than how things were in mid-March 2023.
“The decision by the Permanent Secretary and the Director General to appoint Emma into her role has proved extremely wise and beneficial for all sectors. She hit the ground running and has been sprinting with her team ever since.
“Don’t get me wrong, there is still a lot of work to be done. But I suspect colleagues across sectors are now more reassured the 2025 timelines will be met. As a result, it’s worth noting the meetings with the Defra Director General (like that on 15 March 2023) ceased.
“There seems to be a correlation between the increased levels of preparedness within Defra and a heavily decreased need for sectors to have meetings raising concerns about the Department’s capabilities.
“Since then, sector meetings involving local government, waste management, and producers with Defra officials are much more about operationalising EPR in readiness for 2025, uplifting whole-system performance, and delivering value for money for citizens. Certainly, that’s my experience during 2024.”
The British Retail Consortium’s response
Andrew Opie, Director of Food and Sustainability at the BRC, said: “EPR has a vital role in driving up recycling rates and cutting unnecessary packaging.
“We urgently need the government to publish a comprehensive strategy for how the billions of pounds in EPR fees will be used to boost recycling and support the circular economy.
“Ultimately, customers and businesses will pay for these improvements through increased costs which is why it is essential EPR delivers a step change in recycling that justifies its £2bn a year cost.”
