The government has published a consultation paper discussing the proposed amendments to the UK’s Producer Responsibility (PR) regimes, in a bid to ‘reduce the regulatory burden on businesses under its Red Tape Challenge’.
Under UK PR schemes, producers must pay a financial obligation to bear the costs of collecting, treating and recycling or recovering a proportion of their products to meet legal targets and minimum standards, in accordance with the ‘polluter pays’ principle.
The ‘Review of Producer Responsibility Regimes: Discussion paper on coherence across producer responsibility regimes’, issued by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) (in association with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Scottish Government, Welsh Government and Northern Irish Assembly), focuses on waste packaging, batteries and waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) in response to the WEEE Directive published in August 2012.
According to the discussion paper, government has targeted these regimes as they ‘have greatest potential for coherence and have greatest overlap in regulated population’ and also could see ‘work…improved, maximising their overall effectiveness and reducing administrative burdens on businesses’.
The review forms part of Defra and BIS’ review of all Producer Responsibility regimes ‘to explore opportunities to develop a greater degree of coherence across the regimes’. It follows a consultation on WEEE regulations, released earlier this month.
Review details
Following a call for ideas from stakeholders on how the regimes could be improved, the review takes into account ‘some' of the ideas from stakeholders, but concedes that some proposals were rejected ’because they are either impractical, increase burdens or are based on a misunderstanding of the ways in which the regulations operate’.
A total of 21 areas are under review to bring about coherence across the PR schemes.
Key amongst the review is a proposal that ‘as far as possible the producer responsibility regimes will exclude small producers from the financial obligation to pay for the treatment recovery and recycling of producer responsibility wastes’.
According to the document, qualification for the term ‘small producer’ will vary but will take into account ‘a combination of turnover, staff numbers (FTEs) and/or product tonnage’. However, in the case of WEEE and batteries it‘s ‘likely due to the specific Directive requirements that these producers will still need to register’.
Also outlined in the discussion paper is a change to cost recovery for packaging and WEEE regimes through the introduction of a compliance scheme subsistence charge - as already exists for the batteries scheme. This would see compliance schemes pay an annual subsistence charge, plus a charge for each of their producer members (split according to whether the producer is medium or large), while direct registrants (packaging only) would pay a registration charge (split according to whether the producer is medium or large).
The charges for direct registrants will be ‘reflective of the costs of processing their registration and associated compliance monitoring’.
Further, it is proposed that across all 3 regimes, the data for product placed on the market will be retrospective and based on the previous compliance period(s).
Compliance schemes
Compliance schemes would also be amended under the review so thatthey ‘better reflect the work that the Agencies undertake’. Government proposes ‘applying a subsistence charge to all compliance schemes’ that would ‘likely be fixed within each regime at a level that reflects the work required to directly monitor the scheme’.
To reduce regulatory burden for compliance schemes, the need for operational plans will be removed as will therequirement for an independent audit report (for the WEEE and batteries regimes).
BIS indicates in the review that its two preferred options to overhaul the current WEEE system included setting compulsory targets for compliance schemes or central allocation of Designated Collection Facilities for schemes.
Other proposals made within the review include:
- removing the need for exporters to identify end destination sites for exported material;
- extending the ‘carrying forward’ of evidence to WEEE and batteries;
- introducing a common registration process (either single deadline or staggered);
- adopting the option of group registration for WEEE and batteries;
- imposing fees on waste producers if targets are not met;
- streamlining registration information
- consolidating the producer registration charge across all the regimes, based on a two-tier registration charge based on the size of the producer
- introducing a ‘common competency test’ for all operators; and
- standardising terminology used across all three PR regimes.
Responses to the proposals must be received by 31 May.
If the consultation receives sufficient support, the government will consult further on draft regulations, with a final version being set before Parliament and to come into effect before 1 January 2014.
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There's no easy solution to include glass in the DRS while maintaining a level playing field. Potential approaches include a phased introduction of glass, potentially with higher deposits to reflect its logistical challenges. The government and DMOs could incentivise innovation in glass packaging design and subsidise dedicated return points for glass-handling. Exemptions for smaller businesses unable to handle glass might also be necessary. Any successful solution will likely blend several approaches. It must address the differing priorities of devolved administrations, balance environmental benefits with logistical and cost implications, and be supported by robust consumer education campaigns emphasizing the importance of glass recycling.