The government has announced that every town and city across the country will receive a major boost to their recycling services, with more than £1bn to be funnelled into improving critical infrastructure and collections it announced this weekend.
Under an ‘outdated’ regime, the bill for disposing of items like milk bottles, cereal boxes and soup tins is currently footed by local councils with taxpayers paying.
Through the new Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging scheme, businesses who produce packaging will pay their fair share of the recycling costs.
The latest investment will unlock regional growth, create new green jobs across the country and boost recycling rates which for years have failed to show significant improvement.
Circular Economy Minister, Mary Creagh (left), said of the news: “This government is cleaning up Britain and ending the throwaway society. This will revolutionise how we deal with our waste and ensure more of today’s rubbish is recycled into tomorrow’s packaging.
“The scheme works by charging fees to the businesses that use packaging to meet the costs of collecting and recycling it. The costs will be higher for hard to recycle materials and less where packaging can be reused or refilled.
This will encourage businesses to reduce the amount of packaging they use, shift to more recyclable materials and design new products that can be recycled and reused more easily, stopping waste from going to the nation’s landfills or incinerators.2
Minister of State for Local Government and English Devolution, Jim McMahon OBE MP, added: “Clean and tidy streets are something everyone wants to see, and these common-sense reforms will help councils achieve that.
“Whether it’s channelling more money into recycling or reforming the outdated funding system, we’re fixing the foundations of local government so it can focus on what matters most to people across the country.
Jim Bligh, director of corporate affairs and packaging at The Food and Drink Federation, said: “This announcement is welcome news for both industry and consumers, coming just before producers receive their first invoices for EPR.
“It marks a vital step towards delivering the improvements in the UK’s recycling system that we all want and need. With a £1.4bn annual investment from packaging producers into EPR, we’re pleased to see the government’s commitment to ensuring these funds will be used to upgrade infrastructure and resurrect our flatlining recycling rates.”
No comments yet