April 2023

10 min read

The Chancellor announced in the spring budget that the Plastic Packaging Tax (PPT) is to increase in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

From 1st April 2023, PPT will increase from its current rate of £200/t to £210.82/t.

 

 

EEE & Battery Data Submissions

The deadline for you to provide us with your Q1 2023 EEE and Battery placed on the market data is 21st April 2023.

As this is the first submission of the year, please take time to check that your EEE data has been submitted under the correct categories. If you need any clarification regarding categorisation of EEE please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

A reminder that we will be issuing a new template for use with Q1 2023 Battery reporting. This will remain voluntary until the Batteries Regulations are amended, although both the Environment Agency and Defra would appreciate receipt of the additional information where it is available because it will assist in developing future battery policy. The template will be accompanied by guidance notes.

 

 

We provide the latest update on the progress and developments in the government’s plans to implement packaging EPR, and any further clarification received to help you compile your first packaging EPR data return this summer.

Point of Responsibility

Thank you to our members who provided scenarios requiring clarification about the point of responsibility for packaging under EPR. We raised these with Defra at a recent Packaging Scheme Forum meeting and they promised these will be considered as soon as possible. Most of your questions related to packaging imported on behalf of a brand-owner, including:

• Who is responsible for imported packaging associated with brand-owner returns or contracted warehouse stock which is never called off by the brand-owner?
• Who is responsible for imported transit and secondary packaging to protect products imported on behalf of a brand-owner where this is not specified as part of the commercial contract.

We will provide Defra’s responses once we receive them.

Dual Branded Packaging

If you have received Defra’s latest newsletter, you will have seen that the EPR Guidance has been updated and the responsibility for dual-branded packaging confirmed. See the section headed “For packaging with more than one brand” at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/how-to-collect-your-packaging-data-for-extended-producer-responsibility

The guidance explains that where packaging contains multiple brands, the company that supplies the brand is responsible.

In this example, Mug Shot Noodles is responsible for the packaging, even though it also displays the Alton Towers logo, which is a brand of another producer, Merlin Industries. In this example. Mug Shot is supplying the product and its packaging, not Merlin Industries.

 

 

 

 

 

Empty packaging displaying the packaging supplier’s brand

Defra ia still considering whether the packer/filler or the supplier whose brand appears on the packaging, is responsible and has promised a decision soon. This is another important question for many REPIC members who, for example, may use Mail lite or Jiffy branded postal packaging for shipment to customers.

Defra Cost Calculator for Waste Management Fees for Household Packaging

This is still scheduled to be published by Defra by the end of Quarter One 2023. We understand that it will provide a range of prices per tonne for each packaging material, which can be used by producers to estimate their potential household packaging costs.

As the point of producer responsibility is changing, you cannot use your current PRN obligation in Defra’s cost calculator, nor your direct consumer sales only, since you are also likely to supply other primary and shipment packaging that will be classed as household packaging. We will be producing a guidance note, including a flow chart, to help you to understand which data you need to use.

 

 

HypnoCat’s first nationwide recycling campaign.

Material Focus has launched its first nationwide Recycle Your Electricals campaign.

Material Focus was set up to manage the activities supporting the WEEE Compliance Fee, working in partnership with the Joint Trade Association (JTA).

You can watch the hypnotising advert here