Packaging: Recycling

(asked on 17th April 2025) - View Source
Questioner
Greg Smith Portrait
Greg Smith
(Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he plans to take to ensure that local authorities use funds from the Extended Producer Responsibility scheme solely for waste management and environmental purposes.

Answered by
Mary Creagh Portrait
Mary Creagh
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This question was answered on 29th April 2025

pEPR regulations include a range of measures to drive improved performance and ensure local authorities make the investments needed to support an efficient and effective waste management service for household packaging. These include:

  • Introducing an Improvement Action Process (IAP), through which the poorest performing local authorities are identified and supported to deliver better recycling outcomes.
  • Using financial disincentives to respond to continued poor performance
  • Requiring local authorities in England to collect all six recyclable waste streams (excluding plastic film), from all households by 31 March 2026 via the Simpler Recycling regulations.
In addition, for year 1 of pEPR, the Ministry for Housing, Communities & Local Government has already guaranteed at least £1.1 billion in funding for local authorities in England through pEPR. This provides local authorities with the financial certainty necessary to plan and invest in service improvements accordingly. We will keep the effectiveness of these measures under review.
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