Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what engagement the Government (a) has had and (b) is planning with industry bodies to gain expert input into the process for determining recyclability as part of the implementation of the extended producer responsibility regime and mandatory recycling labelling.

The UK Government, the Devolved Administrations of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and three industry trade bodies are jointly running a project to look at how producer fees for the packaging extended producer responsibility scheme could be modulated (varied) depending on the recyclability of packaging. At the core of this project is stakeholder engagement and stakeholders have expressed their views on, and discussed, the role of recyclability assessments in informing modulated fees and labelling. This project is due to complete by the end of 2021.

There has also been direct engagement with bodies who have developed or are developing recyclability assessment methodologies.

In the recent consultation on the introduction of packaging extended producer responsibility, the Government set out its proposal that the Scheme Administrator should develop or procure the recyclability assessment methodology on behalf of its members. This to provide producers with a common methodology to determine whether for individual items of packaging the combination of components, materials, and design, meets the recyclability criteria. This approach would also underpin labelling for recyclability.

I understand the need for businesses to gain clarity about the new packaging extended producer responsibility scheme as early as possible. We want to be transparent and to provide clarity as soon as we can for each element of the scheme as this will help producers with the design decisions they need to make. However, it will not be for Government to advise businesses on specific packaging design decisions. In the recent consultation the Government set out proposed timelines, including for labelling and invited feedback. We will consider these responses as we finalise our proposals.