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3 September2021 Press Release
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FPA CHALLENGES GOVERNMENT TO LEVEL PLAYING FIELD ON EPR

The Foodservice Packaging Association welcomes the commitment of chewing gum producers to provide funding for cleaning up littered gum. It is a very rare example of a Defra Minister acknowledging the public’s role in littering as Minister Rebecca Pow makes reference to "taking action to prevent people littering in the first place”.

The commitment of chewing gum producers is to invest up to £10 million over the next five years (an average of £2 million per year), however the annual cost of cleaning up chewing gum litter is stated as £7 million per year. This means chewing gum producers are paying for 28% of chewing gum litter management costs, but packaging producers will be paying for 100% of litter management costs, under the governments’ Extended Producer Responsibility proposals for packaging.

 

Surely the playing field should be level when it comes to producer responsibility? Rather than accept a sum which falls well short of what is needed, government should be seeking equivalent Extended Producer Responsibility legislation for the chewing gum sector and not a ‘partnership’ which appears to be an intention rather than a signed legally backed commitment? Not to do so gives an impression of government being selective in its treatment of business responsibility. An impression which is further strengthened by the lack of an EPR system being proposed for the tobacco industry,

whose cigarette ends account for 66.3% of litter by count.

 

The government must show complete impartiality when it comes to producer responsibility and treat different business sectors in the same way rather than target those for which they believe will achieve the most public support in pursuit of environmental improvement

 

Ends                                                                                                                                       3 September 2021