A further 42% of the businesses surveyed said they were unprepared for the legislation.
Ecoveritas outlined that despite Defra strengthening the statutory instrument obligating producers in England to collect and report data on the amount and type of packaging placed on the market from this month, 86% of respondents haven’t completely done so fully.
Under the EPR regulations, all obligated packaging producers are to collect information on the amount and type of packaging they have supplied during 2023, with the first reports to be submitted from 1 October 2023 (see letsrecycle.com story). This will then be used to calculate payments from 2024.
The department said it will remain in talks with producers as the “final design of the scheme and delivery plans are developed”.
Ecoveritas also warned that the British Retail Consortium said this week that the EPR and deposit return scheme combined would increase costs to retailers by around £4 billion, which will be passed onto the consumer (see letsrecycle.com story). The company added that the survey findings “echoed the growing concerns” around the financial implications for businesses, which were voiced by nearly 86% of respondents.
Unprepared
Elsewhere in the survey, 42.9% of respondents rated themselves as unprepared for the upcoming reforms but aware of the changes, Ecoveritas continued. 14.3% of those responding admitted to being unprepared, it added. The survey also revealed that over half of the surveyed businesses have yet to make plans, with the remainder internally resourced, 14.3% of which will rely on external software/systems.
57.1% of respondents, or three in every five businesses surveyed, do not currently collect data on packaging waste – let alone report on it.
When asked to rate the quality of the government’s communication around the legislative changes to packaging regulations on a scale of 1-10, with one being poor, 85.7% of respondents said between one and two, the data specialist outlined. All surveyed businesses rated it lower than four.
‘Significantly lacking’
Ecoveritas’ chief strategy officer Andrew McCaffery said: “Many businesses face big data challenges when understanding their compliance obligations for a geographic region. While some countries request no or limited data and financial contributions relating to EPR, others often require detailed data submissions. This means if you don’t have the necessary data, or it is not precise enough, there could be large cost implications at stake.”
He continued that SMEs in particular “will struggle to rise to the challenge more than large companies with the resources to engage”. Mr McCaffery also noted that individual obligated companies’ compliance costs could increase between six and 20 times depending on the final design of the new system.
“It’s fair to say that preparedness is significantly lacking for many reasons. However, the direction of travel is clear, despite not reaching a full understanding and consensus. We advise engaging with your peers, suppliers, trade associations and organisations such as ours to ensure you hold live and accurate packaging specifications,” he concluded.
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