Page 26 - PWM2024_APRIL EBOOK

TECHNOLOGY REPORT

EPR: is it workable?

T placing packaging on the market in the first instance will
he hope is to create a circular economy in It
be wholly responsible for financing the management of
doesn’t help with confusion in the trade that, as
that packaging once it arises as waste”. This is different to
Clark points out, Nation of Sale data reporting
The trade is well has also recently been further delayed. It the former system in which producers were only partly
aware – or should be sounded like a great idea when first mooted in responsible for financing the management of packaging
2018. Environmentalists such as City to Sea
so by now – of the were delighted as it would reduce costs and incentivise waste. He knows that the new system brings additional
costs to producers but says that “the scale of those addi-
government’s better packaging. tional costs will be dependent on the producer’s activities
Extended Producer However, as the organisation detailed, despite the pol- and how much packaging they are introducing to the
Responsibility for icy being part of the government’s plans, a UK-wide con- market”.
Packaging (EPR) leg- sultation in 2019 and another in 2021, a promised roll- out Will EPR hurt print?
by 2023, by the time the last consultation responses were
islation that aims to published in March 2022 the process had been delayed.
Considering who the EPR is targeting, the matter is of
move the full cost of Overall, City to Sea is less than impressed with EPR’s relevance to the sector.
managing household progress, stating that “the scheme has now been delayed Jon Clark, general manager of BPIF Cartons, a special
waste onto produc- –again – from the proposed date of October 2024 to interest group within the BPIF, says that the government
2025”. It referred to Defra moving the goalposts follow-
ers. ing “extensive engagement with industry” and “the pres- regards packaging as pollution and so is applying the prin-
sure facing consumers and businesses in the current ciple of ‘the polluter pays.’ However, he adds: “They con-
Words by economic context”. veniently forget that packaging is necessary to get product
Adam Bernstein It is true that EPR is new and requires a new way of from point of production to point of consumption. And in
thinking. In relation to the EPR, Jordan Girling, head of addition to protecting the product, packaging also
Extended Producer Responsibility at WRAP, a climate informs consumers about cooking, nutritional informa-
action charity, says that for the first time “companies tion and ingredients, etc; without packaging, food waste

26 PrintWeek MENA April 2024 www.printweekmena.com