Defra to appoint EPR scheme administrator at ‘end of 2023’

Defra announced the date in a Q&A issued following the first ‘business readiness forum’ on 10 January.

The scheme administrator will determine how producers pay fees to cover local authorities’ full net disposal costs for household packaging waste.

It is thought the scheme administrator is likely to be a public sector body. One option under consideration is that the Environment Agency could take on the role, which would see it administer more than £1 billion of public funds from brand owners and others.

Another option is that Defra could set up a separate organisation along the lines of the Rural Payments Agency, which pays out more than £2 billion to the farming and food sector each year.

Defra’s announcement reaffirms the commitment it made in the EPR response published in March 2021, when it said it would establish the scheme administrator in 2023, with the aim of it being “fully operational” in 2024 (see letsrecycle.com story).

This will leave the scheme administrator with little time to prepare, as EPR is to be introduced in a phased manner from 2024. For the businesses affected by EPR, the collection of packaging data becomes mandatory this March, though many began doing so at the start of this year.

Fees

Elsewhere in its Q&A, Defra said it was aiming to provide an indication of base fees for the 2024 payments “shortly”. It said it would provide more details on its approach to modulating fees this summer.

Defra also said it would “shortly” release guidance from regulators on how to differentiate household from non-household packaging.

And, Defra said reporting data for EPR could not be linked with the data requirements for the plastic packaging tax because, “they are two separate obligations with different data reporting requirements for different purposes.” “Legislation is requiring more and better data than the packaging sector has ever had to supply,” Defra said.

Business readiness forums

Defra’s online business readiness forums, at which anyone is welcome, aim to allow industry to discuss its collection and packaging reforms and delivery projects.

The first forum gave a brief overview of Defra’s reforms and covered the online EPR obligation checker and upcoming ‘visioning sprints’ (see letsrecycle.com story).

The next forum takes place tomorrow (24 January). It will address the deposit return scheme, labelling and upcoming communications activities for EPR.