The Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) published on Thursday 15th August the first set of illustrative fees for upcoming packaging Extended Producer Responsibility scheme which will be imposed on packaging producers from next year.New rules will shift more of the cost of managing household waste and packaging onto producers. Organisations covered by the EPR will be required to report on the amount of packaging they put onto the market by 1 April 2025, beyond which fees will be calculated by the scheme administrator based on the amount of packaging brought into circulation during the previous calendar year.Producers will need to provide packaging data if they are:
- an individual business, subsidiary, or group - but not a charity
- with an annual turnover of £1m or more
- and are responsible for over 25 tonnes of packaging in a calendar year.
Defra's new illustrative fees are grouped into "higher", "intermediate", and "lower" estimates which reflect current uncertainty over the disposal costs of aluminium, fibre-based composites, paper or board, plastic, steel, wood, glass, and other materials.
- Defra said that the fees were a first estimate designed to help industry prepare for the expansion of the scheme and were based on the best available evidence for how waste household packaging was processed during 2022.
- Revised base fees are set to be provided in September once more robust data has been verified by regulatory bodies.
- Defra added that its initial estimates were also subject to the government's 2024 Spending Review and do not cover regulator charges or costs associated with meeting recycling targets through the purchase of Packaging Waste Recycling Notes.
- The legislation requiring producers to pay more towards the cost of recycling the material they produce will be brought before Parliament "later this year", with the aim of the wide-ranging rules coming into effect from 1 January 2025.
"This government is committed to cracking down on waste as we move towards a circular economy," a Defra spokesperson said. "Extended producer responsibility for packaging is a vital first step. It will create 21,000 jobs, stimulate more than £10bn investment in the recycling sector over the next decade, and see packaging producers, rather than the taxpayer, cover the costs of managing waste. We will continue to work closely with businesses on the implementation of this programme, and publishing the illustrative base fees provides them with the clarity they need to prepare," they added.BHETA will review the announcement carefully and work with the Joint Trade Association (JTA), members and Wastepack, who manage the Packaging Compliance scheme we recommend to members.Read the DEFRA RATES announcement hereREAD DEFRA'S GUIDE TO "EPR: who is affected and what to do"
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