In initiating the most significant reforms to the UK’s packaging waste regulations, since their implementation in 1997, extended producer responsibility (EPR) will see the cost burden of collecting household waste shift from the taxpayer to producers, in the hope of delivering a more circular economy for packaging where greater quantities of recyclable waste are reprocessed into valuable, high-quality secondary resources.

For some, EPR is a long overdue upheaval of packaging waste legislation that will hopefully reduce the prevalence of littering, fund nationally consistent waste collections and boost recycling rates, which are at risk of stagnation. For others, EPR is viewed as more of a necessary evil that will see packaging producers finance the post-consumer management of packaging waste in the UK.

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This article was also published in The Retailer, our quarterly online magazine providing thought-leading insights from BRC experts and Associate Members.

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