The Foodservice Packaging Association (FPA) is calling on Defra to implement an “immediate and intensive” information campaign for businesses impacted by the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for packaging data collection requirements.
From 1 January businesses turning over more than £1 million a year and placing 25 tonnes+ of packaging on the market, will need to keep detailed packaging records by material, UK nation and whether the material has the propensity to be disposed of in litter bins, FPA says.
The Association continues that it is thought that as many as 600 data points will be involved to meet this requirement, which is likely to be legally required by the end of February.
FPA says that more than 100 of its members attended a recent webinar, with most citing “confusion” as their motivating reason to attend. During the webinar, the FPA says it became clear that businesses are worried about the requirement and risk of inadvertently falling on the wrong side of the law and incurring large fines.
Defra must step up and implement a comprehensive information campaign immediately to prevent companies from not complying.
Louisa Goodfellow, from Ecosurety, led the webinar and the FPA says she fielded many questions from members where the answer was that the guidelines are unclear or that they don’t carry the detailed level of guidance that is required.
The Executive Director of FPA Martin Kersh said that if businesses who are engaged members of a trade association are confused, the problem the FPA is seeing must only be the “tip of the iceberg”.
Commentating on the FPA’s call, he said: “If our members are confused at these chaotic, late guidelines, then there must be thousands of businesses who are at best confused but at worst completely unaware of these burdensome regulations.”
“Defra must step up and implement a comprehensive information campaign immediately to prevent companies from not complying for the simple reason they didn’t know about it. Defra’s website does not include this on the front page, nor even as a news story.
“We’ve seen nothing in the business media urging business to sign up or to get in touch. This must be done immediately, as many companies are unaware of the EPR data requirements and that they impact them.”
