Regulatory affairs in the UK and overseas are shaping our industry and at Beyondly we endeavour to be the roots of action, informing businesses on their current and future requirements.
Below you will find an overview of relevant policy updates, with a library of resources to bring you up to speed.
The Government want products to be designed to use less material and want to encourage the adoption of more resource efficient business models, to achieve greater circularity. To do so, Government have planned to reform the existing Producer Responsibility regulations used for packaging, WEEE and batteries to use the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) approach.
EPR is an environmental policy approach through which a producer’s responsibility for a product is extended to the post-use stage, requiring the producer to have significant or full responsibility (which can be financial and/or physical) for the treatment or disposal of post-consumer products. This approach incentivises producers to design their products to make it easier for them to be reused, dismantled and/or recycled at end of life.
The reform of the previous 2007 packaging Producer Responsibility Regulations is underway. In July 2023, it was announced that the ‘Main EPR Regulations’ are being deferred coming into force. These Regulations were due to come into force in 2024 and replace the 2 sets of Regulations currently in force for packaging compliance. However, this has been deferred by one year, and the ‘Main EPR Regulations’ are now due to come into force in 2025.
As the ‘Main EPR Regulations’ have been deferred, as a result packaging compliance in 2024 will be different. Producers will be required to
Available resources
England
Scotland
Northern Ireland
Wales
Consultations on reforming the WEEE regulations and the Batteries regulations were originally scheduled to launch by the end of 2020 with changes to be implemented from January 2023. However, with the global pandemic and other issues, consultations on reforming both sets of regulations have been delayed with the WEEE reform consultation currently expected in late 2023, and the Batteries reform consultation expected to follow.
Available resources
A DRS for drinks containers is a type of EPR through which producers are given significant or full responsibility (financial and/or physical) for the treatment or disposal of post-consumer products. In a DRS, a monetary deposit is put on the sale of beverages obligated under the scheme, which is refunded once the empty container is taken to a return point for recycling. Schemes are designed to encourage the return of empty single-use containers for collection for recycling, increase quantity and quality of materials collected for recycling, and to decrease litter.
Scotland
Scotland was set to introduce a separate DRS for drinks containers to the rest of the UK nations, however this has been delayed until October 2025 at the earliest in line with the other UK nations.
Available resources
England, Wales and Northern Ireland
England, Wales and Northern Ireland are due to go live with their scheme in October 2025 at the earliest, now in line with Scotland.
Available resources
The Government want to increase the consistency of materials recycled in England and how these are collected, to reduce confusion in the materials that can be collected for recycling at kerbside. The Government also wants to improve the recycling of waste from non-domestic premises that produce household waste and relevant waste from businesses.
England has seen household recycling rates increase from 11% in the 2000 to 2001 financial year to 42% in 2021 to 2022, but in recent years rates have plateaued at around 42% to 44%. To address this, the Government will repeal EU-derived waste collection requirements and introduce improved and simplified requirements through the Environment Act 2021.
The Government held a second consultation on increasing recycling consistency in England during May – July 2021. The following areas were consulted on
In October 2023, the Government published their long-awaited response to the 2021 consultation. Within this response, new requirements were confirmed
The improved recycling system will support investment in domestic reprocessing facilities, creating UK jobs and increasing recourse security. The reforms will mean that people can recycle the same items at home, work or school throughout England. This will be supported by the introduction of mandatory recyclability labelling on packaging, a requirement that will be introduced as part of extended producer responsibility (EPR) for packaging. Together, these policies will make it much easier to know what can and cannot be recycled.
These consistency measures will ensure that across England, people will be able to recycle the same materials, no longer needing to check what their council will accept for recycling. Simpler Recycling will ensure that local authorities retain the flexibility to collect the recyclable waste streams in the most appropriate way for their residents.
Available resources
Beyondly is a leading government approved compliance scheme for waste packaging, WEEE and batteries
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