Extended Producer Responsibility - Packaging

EPR will move the full cost of dealing with household packaging waste away from local taxpayers and councils to the packaging producers (applying the ‘polluter pays principle’), giving producers responsibility for the costs of their packaging throughout its life cycle. This will encourage producers to reduce their use of packaging and use packaging which is easier to recycle. Producers will pay more for less recyclable packaging, incentivising packaging that uses less material and is easier to recycle. Producers will also be expected to meet ambitious new recycling targets and use clear unambiguous labelling of recyclability to make it easy for consumers to do the right thing.

Key aims of EPR for packaging include:

• Increase recycling rates of packaging to 76%
• Reduce waste and non-recyclable material being placed on the market
• Shift costs of managing household and street-binned packaging waste to producers of packaging
• Modulated producer fees
• Mandate collection of flexible plastics for recycling by 2027

Consultations on EPR for packaging took place in 2019 and 2021, with a government response published in March 2022. A draft of the main UK-wide Statutory Instrument to implement key obligations under EPR was consulted on in 2023.

The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024 came into force on 01 January 2025 and the scheme went live in April 2025 on a UK wide basis.

For Northern Ireland, there is an obligation under EU Directive 94/62/EC on Packaging and Packaging Waste to introduce EPR for packaging, as this Directive is listed in Annex II to the Northern Ireland Protocol/Windsor Framework.

Type of Change

Statutory

Affected Stakeholders

• Packaging producers
• Waste management organisations
• Waste re-processors
• Local authorities

Changes

• Increase recycling rates of packaging to 76%
• Reduce waste and non-recyclable material being placed on the market
• Shift costs of managing household and street-binned packaging waste to producers of packaging
• Modulated producer fees
• Mandate collection of flexible plastics for recycling by 2027
• Reform of the PRN system from 1 January 2027

Status

See the Extended Producer Responsibility - Packaging page for more details.

Expected Timeline

Ongoing for 2026