UK kicks off packaging EPR scheme

The UK Government has formally launched an extended producer responsibility (EPR) scheme for packaging with a £1.1 billion (EUR 1.27 billion) fund to boost collection and sorting infrastructure.

The EPR scheme works by charging fees to businesses that use packaging to meet the costs of collecting and recycling it. The costs will be higher for hard-to-recycle materials and less where packaging can be reused or refilled.

As a result, it is expected businesses will reduce the amount of packaging they use, shift to more recyclable materials and design new products that can be recycled and reused more easily, while stopping waste from going to landfill or incinerators.

Jobs boost

Politicians expect the investment, part of a ‘Plan for Change’ policy, to unlock regional growth, create new green jobs across the country and boost household recycling rates which have flat-lined for years.

The money could be spent on offering local residents more streamlined recycling collections, building new infrastructure or covering the costs of upgrading facilities where councils send household waste.

Circular Economy Minister Mary Creagh said the government was cleaning up Britain and ending the throwaway society.

‘Under the Plan for Change, we are pumping more than £1 billion into local recycling services. This will revolutionise how we deal with our waste and ensure more of today’s rubbish is recycled into tomorrow’s packaging.’

Strategic approach

Councils face losing future allocations from the fund if an official body overseeing the scheme says the cash has been used for other purposes.Alongside EPR for packaging, the government is introducing a deposit return scheme in 2027.

Meanwhile, ‘Simpler Recycling’, hailed as ‘a sensible and pragmatic approach to the collection of materials from households and workplaces’, went live in March 2025 and launches for households in March 2026.

Additionally, a Circular Economy Taskforce is working with industrial sectors to create a series of roadmaps to improve and reform the approach to using materials, underpinned by a Circular Economy Strategy which will be published in autumn.