UKHospitality: EPR recycling scheme delay ‘very welcome’

UKHospitality’s chief executive said the government’s announcement to delay a new recycling legislation by a year is “very welcome indeed”.

The decision to push back the new legislation, known as the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme, was announced on Tuesday (25 July) on the department for environment, food, and rural affairs’ (DEFRA) website.

The delay means food and drink manufacturers will now not have to pay any fees to local authorities in 2024, with payment being delayed until October 2025.

The fees are designed to help improve local authorities' waste collection and management of packaging waste. Producers and manufacturers, however, are still required to follow the guidance and report packaging data for 2023.

Speaking to The Caterer, UKHospitality’s chief exectuve Kate Nicholls said: “While the reasoning behind the government’s EPR scheme – to reduce waste packaging among food and drink manufacturers – is extremely pertinent, the timing of the scheme has always been a point of contention.

“The industry continues to face many challenges across multiple fronts, such as soaring energy bills, workforce issues and price rises across supply chains, and the introduction of further regulations would be ill-timed and potentially highly damaging to the sector.

“The decision to delay the launch of the scheme to October 2025 is, therefore, very welcome indeed, as it gives businesses across our industry the breathing space they require to adequately prepare for and tackle the issue of plastic waste in the best shape possible.”

DEFRA released a further statement on Tuesday evening (25 July) saying the decision to postpone the launch was due to “the pressure facing consumers and businesses in the current economic context”. It added the government will use the additional year “to discuss the scheme’s design with industry and reduce the costs of implementation wherever possible”.

If the reform goes ahead, food and drink manufacturers which have an annual turnover of £1m or more or are responsible for supplying or importing more than 25 tonnes of empty packaging or packaged goods in the UK would be obliged to report packaging waste data from January next year and pay the full cost of packaging waste disposal from October 2025.

Nicholls previously told The Caterer the EPR scheme was "the last thing" the sector needed.