The Foodservice Packaging Association (FPA) is calling on Defra to implement an immediate, intensive, information campaign for businesses impacted by the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for packaging data collection requirements, effective from 1 January. From 1 January businesses turning over more than £1million a year and placing 25 tonnes+ of packaging on the market, will need to keep detailed packaging records by material, UK nation and whether the material has a propensity to be disposed of in litter bins. It is thought that as many at 600 data points will be involved to meet this requirement, which is likely to be legal required by the end of February.
More than 100 FPA members attended a recent webinar, with most citing ‘confusion’ as their motivating reason to attend. It was clear during the webinar, and from the volume of questions, that businesses are worried about the requirement and risk inadvertently falling on the wrong side of the law and incurring large fines. But as Executive Director Martin Kersh explains, if those businesses who are engaged members of a trade association are confused, the problem the FPA is seeing must only be the tip of the iceberg: “If our members are confused at these chaotic, late guidelines, then there must be thousands of businesses who are at best confused but at worst completely unaware of these burdensome regulations” he says. Adding: “Defra must step up and implement a comprehensive information campaign immediately to prevent companies from not complying for the simple reason they didn’t know about it. Defra’s website does not include this on the front page, nor even as a news story. We’ve seen nothing in the business media urging business to sign up or to get in touch. This must be done immediately, as many companies are unaware of the EPR data requirements and that they impact them.”
Louisa Goodfellow, from Ecosurety, who lead the FPA webinar, fielded many questions from members where the answer was that the guidelines are unclear or that they don’t carry the detailed level of guidance that is required.
Says Martin: “We have to ask why our industry is in this situation, having to scramble around to get ready on time to deal with what is a massive administration requirement. Defra’s communication department needs to step up and avoid a repeat of the plastic packaging tax, where the sign up is a fraction of that predicted by HMRC.”
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Issued on behalf of the Foodservice Packaging Association by Leapfrog PR. Editorial contact is Felicity Read on 07887 608353 or email felicity@leap-pr.com.
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