The requirement would have mandated consistent consumer-facing labelling surrounding recyclability on packaging across the UK.
In a statement emailed to industry stakeholders, Defra said that EPR is currently on track to come into force in January 2025.
It added that it will “include mandatory labelling across the UK – likely via an amendment to our forthcoming legislation in 2025 – and our approach is likely to be consistent across all nations of the UK. In preparing these provisions, we will review the forthcoming EU packaging legislation and explore the potential for consistency across our approaches.”
In the first session of the day at the RECOUP Conference (26 September 2024), chair and head of the scheme administrator, Margaret Bates, said that Defra hoped the change would allow for the UK EPR to align better with European labelling to allow future cross-European labelling.
Panellist and innovation and policy director at Ecosurety, Robbie Staniforth, added that while the change is disappointing in the short term, it could be in the sector’s best interest in the long term.
Sticking point
In a statement to the press yesterday, Staniforth clarified: “While it is disappointing that mandatory labelling won’t come in as anticipated, it is pleasing to see the government are removing barriers that would stop legislation being laid next month. For the EU, this issue was a major sticking point and it is vital that the law passes and that the new system goes live in 2025.
“We believe that packaging producers will continue the trend of labelling their products to help citizens know if it can be recycled or not, on a voluntary basis. Eventually, labelling does need to be mandated to create a level playing field between packaging producers and make it as simple as possible for citizens. However, labelling is just one small facet of the new law that after several years of design still has not passed. It would simply not be acceptable to wait for yet another year or more for the system, just because of this one issue.”
Also on the panel, was Suez’s chief technical development and innovation officer Stuart Hayward-Higham who lamented the loss of the time and effort the industry had put into preparing for the mandatory labelling requirements. He added: “It is producers and consumers who suffer when the government chops and changes policy.”
To learn more about EPR and its changes, make sure you attend the EPR Conference on 14 November at the IET in London. See the growing agenda and book your tickets here.
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