Ahead of an announcement on the base fees for the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme next week, the Scotch Whisky Association, Wine and Spirit Trade Association, WineGB, British Beer and Pub Association, British Glass and UKHospitality have written to Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Steve Reed setting out significant concerns remaining across the industry over the scheme.
The letter highlights that in its current form, EPR will impose significantly higher costs on glass compared to a range of other materials and could result in producers switching to less recyclable materials which defies the aim of the scheme to move the UK further towards a circular economy. Despite glass being only 5% of the volume of containers placed on market, it would disproportionately cover approximately 30% of the scheme's cost.
The trade associations call for immediate action to be taken to ensure the scheme is fair, efficient and effective and does not result in producers paying twice for their packaging waste due to 'double counting', highlighting the fundamental problems with how packaging waste is defined within the current scheme.
The letter proposes that collection targets and tangible incentives for Local Authorities could improve waste collection rates and processing services, which would drive the scheme towards its aims of increasing recyclability and developing a UK circular economy.
30.06.2025, Trade Associations
News material on the Site is copyright and belongs to the Company or to its third party news provider, and all rights are reserved. Any User who accesses such material may do so only for its own personal use, and the use of such material is at the sole risk of the User. Redistribution or other commercial exploitation of such news material is expressly prohibited. Where such news material is provided by a third party, each User agrees to observe and be bound by the specific terms of use applying to such news material. We do not represent or endorse the accuracy or reliability of any of the info contained in any news or external websites referred to in the news.
Should the content or the design of these sites violate third parties rights or legal prescriptions, we kindly ask you to send us a respective message without invoice or cost. We guarantee that passages where the claim is considered as justified will be removed immediately, without any necessity to involve any lawyer into this issue. We will reject any claim caused by submission of a honorary note in this regard without any prior contact and confirmation of the issueby us and we reserve the right ssue counter claim ourselves because of violation of aforesaid conditions.