What's happening in the world of policy: August 2026
It’s nearly the end of the summer holidays, Government will be back to work shortly, and we will start to see the policy landscape moving again as we run towards the end of a very eventful year.
Hopefully some of the issues we have seen this year will be resolved and resigned to history, but I’m expecting some issues clinging on in there through 2027.
Let’s see what’s happened in August!
UK
Packaging
A handful of key points this month:
It’s the end of August now, so all your pEPR resubmissions should be with your compliance scheme to send to the regulator before the new 1 September resubmission deadline!
A reminder, PackUK have stated if your resubmission is sent after this date, your NoL will not reflect your resubmission data.
This is only applicable to pEPR disposal fees. PRN data, handled by your compliance scheme, will still be updated for submissions and resubmissions after this date.
Most of the Gov.uk pages on pEPR have been overhauled and simplified, which is great news for those wanting to begin their pEPR journey, or brush up on their knowledge.
Once again, RPS 330 in England has been extended, delaying the reporting of Nation of Sale data, carrier bags, and self-managed organisation waste until 2028 data reporting, and it is expected that the other UK nations will follow suit.
The cynic in me is thinking this RPS has been extended to line up with a possible amendment to the pEPR regulations end 2027, which will remove these obligations permanently… but please don’t quote me on that as it’s just a hunch!
Also note, there is still no official RPS for the delay to the mandatory kerbside collection of flexible plastic in England under Simpler Recycling.
The PRN market is still suffering from issues throughout this year, but the PSF is convening a meeting with Defra, hopefully the week commencing 31st August, to discuss the data and any potential interventions later in the year.
Packaging adjacent: Exchange for Change have finally been appointed as the DMO to run the DRS scheme in Wales. This means DRS will almost certainly be going ahead come October 2027, with Exchange for Change working at pace to bring Wales up to speed with the rest of the UK. With this certainty though, raises further questions about the effect on PRNs and disposal fees once this high quality material is removed from pEPR scope, and further dialogue is needed with Government to plan for these changes.
ETS
A big update was announced on 26th August. The planned ETS expansion into the waste sector will now not go ahead in 2028, with a future timeline due to be announced ‘in due course’.
There are a couple of things to think about here that could take up a whole news story on their own:
Is this linked to the announced delay to kerbside flexible plastics collections in England? With that announcement acknowledging the lack of UK infrastructure to process this material, the majority would have still ended up being incinerated. With those new ETS costs moving from Local Authorities to producers in the form of increased flexible plastic pEPR disposal fees, supermarket food prices would unduly be affected, leading to increased inflation.
There is also the recent announcement that the EU will be delaying the introduction of municipal waste incineration into EU ETS from 2031, which the UK will be potentially looking to align with.
ESOS
A small update here to mention that the ESOS Phase 4 Guidance has now been published.
This is alongside the Phase 3 Progress Update 1 data which shows that >86% of participants are now compliant, with enforcement increasing to bring the remaining into compliance.
Deforestation
As we move into Q4, we start to wonder if we’ll see any further work on the UK’s plans for deforestation regulations after the announcement of the UK’s ‘direction’ in June… And yes… I know that was the previous Labour government, but if alignment with the EU is the goal, then work does need to start soonish!
EU
PPWR
I said it in my last round up, but PPWR is now live! And we have the published FAQ v.2 which answers many questions that we abound earlier in the year.
This month, we have seen a raft of consultations and updates:
Consultation on the Register of Producers (closes 10th September)
Three consultations on recycled content in plastic:
Harmonisation of the rules for calculating and verifying recycled content in plastic packaging
Methodological rules to ensure that plastic materials collected or recycled in non-EU countries are equivalent to such materials in the EU
Establishing sustainability criteria for plastic recycling technologies to ensure greatest possible environmental benefits
And lastly, a transitional derogation for heavy metal limits in crystal glass, pushing industry to move to lead-alternatives over the next 2-3 years.
EUBR
Work is still progressing on exemptions and alterations to the removability and replaceability of portable batteries under 2025/0397(COD): The last work on this was 15th July.
Under the CRMA, work is continuing on the recyclability and recycled content of permanent magnets under 2025/0385(COD).
We will keep an eye on these discussions and report when final acts are produced.
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