The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) published its long-awaited response to the consultation last week (20 January).
It outlined that the scheme from October 2025 is set to include drinks containers made from PET plastic, steel and aluminium cans for the UK Northern Ireland and Wales. Glass will also be in scope in Wales (see letsrecycle.com story).
With EPR due to be phased in from 2024 and the government’s response to the final consistent collections consultation due soon, fears over how the legislation will link up have been expressed.
Others also criticised the lack of mention of waste reduction policies and fears remain over the impact of the policy on council revenues.
Timelines
The issue of how the different reforms work together were raised by the Local Government Association (LGA), the National Association of Waste Disposal Officers (NAWDO) and the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee (LARAC).
Cllr David Renard, environment spokesperson for the LGA explained that while he feels councils are pleased to see some further details for how the DRS would work, they “need to understand how the implementation DRS will work alongside other planned waste reforms, such as the plans for packagers to pay for waste processing.”
Along similar lines, NAWDO said its members “remain concerned about the lack of further information on the consistency proposals and would encourage the government to expedite the release of a response to the 2021 consultation on that issue”.
This was echoed by Cathy Cook, chair of LARAC, who commented: “It is critical that the government release their response to the consistency consultations as soon as possible, in order for local authorities to have an overall view of the collection and packaging reforms and how they align and impact each other.”
Waste reduction
LGA and NAWDO also agreed on the point of waste reduction.
Cllr Renard outlined: “DRS is another way of collecting waste, but it does not reduce the amount of packaging or require producers and retailers to reduce the amount of waste. We want to prioritise plans to reduce the amount of waste produced in the first place.”
And, NAWDO highlighted that “there appears to be little focus or priority on achieving better environmental and economic outcomes for the UK through a reduction in waste generation, with the response to the 2021 consultation on a revised waste prevention programme for England also still outstanding.”
Digital
Another concern for local authorities is the loss of revenue from material sales. The DRS is likely to take a lot of high value items away from kerbside collections, which some have described as “cherry picking”. Defra argues that councils will save from litter costs while they can also keep unclaimed deposits.
Councils however say the sale of recyclable materials helps to keep council reprocessing contract costs down, either through subsidised gate fees or direct revenue shares (see letsrecycle.com story). In light of this, they highlighted the benefits of a digital DRS system, which would see residents able to scan the container and recycle it through kerbside collection.
Cllr Renard noted: “Ultimately the public will likely continue to rely on councils to collect the vast majority of their household waste, and so it is disappointing a digital DRS system will not be taken forward as a cheaper option in closer step with the current waste system.”
If a DRS is to be pursued, NAWDO also said that it believes that the government “should give further urgent consideration to a digital solution as an alternative approach”. The association explained that this will make use of existing infrastructure for collection services from homes and businesses without requiring the disruption, expenditure and material use necessary for the fabrication and installation of reverse vending machines.
Ms Cook, too, pointed out the financial implication of the proposed DRS, which will see local authorities face “a significant reduction in the high quality material they will collect at the kerbside”. She added that they may face further difficulties in redeeming payments for the DRS material that does end up in kerbside collections.
“The introduction of a digital DRS could address some of these issues, whilst making the scheme much easier for residents, so it is disappointing that this is not being considered at this time,” she stated.
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