Packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is now Law!

Yesterday, 24^th October 2024, the regulations for pEPR (Packaging Extended Producer Responsibility) were signed into law by Parliament and laid the foundations for them to come into force in January 2025. As said by Robbie Staniforth, Policy Director at Ecosurety and Co-host of ‘Talking Rubbish’ podcast, “I’m in a state of shock. Finally, after nearly 6 years of working on it, the full packaging EPR regs have been signed in parliament today!”

But what does that mean for you the supplier?

What is EPR?

We’ve talked about EPR Explained before so hopefully you’ll already be prepared but just in case, we’ll talk through the key points here. The aim of EPR is for producers to pay the full net costs of managing and recycling the packaging waste arising from products they place on the market. These regulations will apply to all obligated UK organisations that import or supply packaging, but the associated costs will only come in to effect for certain customers who meet a specific threshold.

You need to collect and report packaging data for a given year if all the following apply:

• you’re an individual business, subsidiary or group (but not a charity)
• you have an annual turnover of £1 million or more, based on your most recent annual accounts up to 7 April
• you were responsible for importing or supplying more than 25 tonnes of packaging to the UK market in the previous calendar year
• you carry out any of the packaging activities

This reporting will then be used to charge producers fees and to fund local authorities (LA) so that they can best manage and recycle household waste.

Emma Bourne, Resource & Waste Director at DEFRA, said the signing in Parliament today is “the product of years of very hard work. Thank you to everyone who has worked so hard both in Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and our many partners across industry, local government and NGOs.”

If you want to find out more about how these changes will affect your business, you can visit the DEFRA .gov website or speak to the packaging specialists at RAJA, we’re keeping our information as up to date as possible on our EPR Explained post and our team are here to help you find the best way to navigate these new laws.