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

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken (1) to prepare for the introduction of mandatory recycling labelling on packaging, and (2) to ensure business is able to implement these reforms effectively and at a reasonable cost.

We confirmed our intention to require recycling labelling on packaging in March 2022 in the Government’s Packaging Extended Producer Responsibility consultation response. We continue to engage with stakeholders as we develop these requirements, the approach to assessing recyclability and the regulations to introduce mandatory labelling.

Labelling will be required by 31^st March 2026 for all packaging except plastic films and flexibles which will be required to be labelled by 31^st March 2027. This should provide sufficient time for business to adopt labelling as part of typical business cycles and to avoid unnecessary costs. It will also allow time for collection services to develop such that all local authorities collect the same packaging materials for recycling.