UK set to push back new recycling scheme amid industry concerns

Receive free UK politics & policy updates

We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest UK politics & policy news every morning.

UK ministers are set to delay a new £1.7bn a year recycling scheme after bowing to pressure from retailers and food producers, which have warned that it will increase food and drink prices amid the cost of living crisis.

The extended producer responsibility for packaging (EPR) scheme, originally due to take effect in 2024, would make companies responsible for bearing the costs of collection, sorting, recycling and disposal of packaging waste. 

But industry and government figures told the Financial Times that ministers were reviewing its implementation and likely to announce a delay within days, sparking criticism from environmental groups.

As set out, the EPR scheme will apply to companies that supply packaged goods to the UK market under their own brand, import products in packaging or sell non-UK made plastic products via an online marketplace.

Under the new rules, first proposed in 2018, they would have to collect and publish data on their packaging and pay various costs before obtaining formal “notes” from reprocessors confirming the packaging waste has been recycled.

Payments would be made to a publicly run scheme administrator before being passed to councils to collect plastic waste and handle its recycling.

British retailers, manufacturers and food producers have urged ministers to postpone the EPR, saying it would not benefit the environment as intended and that the cost of the charge, if passed on by producers, could add up to £60 a year to household bills.

Karen Betts, chief executive of the Food and Drink Federation, said the scheme was “likely to prompt further price increases, just at the time when food and drink companies are working round the clock to keep prices down for hard-pressed households”.

But environmental groups reacted angrily, warning that a delay risked pushing the reforms beyond the general election expected next year.

Libby Peake, head of resource policy at Green Alliance, a think-tank, said it was “ridiculous” that after five years the government had failed to implement the EPR.

“To scrap it now would mean they had wasted all that time,” said Peake, adding that she sympathised with producers that have had no say in fixing the UK’s “dysfunctional” recycling system and that some of the best EPR schemes had been led by business.

Nusa Urbancic, chief executive of the Changing Markets Foundation, also criticised the prospect of a delay, saying that the supermarkets and consumer brands that benefit from cheap disposable packaging should pay for its disposal.

“By listening to these lobby groups, the UK has become a real laggard when it comes to environmental legislation,” she said.

Asked by Tory MP Nigel Mills at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday if the government planned to “pause or reset” the programme, Rishi Sunak said he had listened to industry concerns.

He said the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs was “continuing to engage closely with manufacturers, retailers and packaging companies on the precise design of the scheme”.

Defra declined to comment on a delay but said that it would soon “finalise” the plans for the EPR to ensure it met the government’s environmental goals.