Steve Barclay has become the fifth new environment secretary since the Resources and Waste Strategy was unveiled in 2018.

He was appointed to the role as part of the Prime Minister’s cabinet reshuffle earlier this week he will take over from Thérèse Coffey who resigned from the position.

Mr Barclay moves from his role as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. He replaced Ms Coffey in that role too when she was named as Environment Secretary in October 2022.

The MP for North-East Cambridgeshire has also campaigned against MVV’s plans for an incinerator in Wisbech, saying they are “deeply flawed”. He has argued that “it’s simply not suitable for an incinerator of this size in such a location with the accompanying impact on health, traffic and the environment".

He will now get to work naming his ministers. It is expected that Rebecca Pow will retain her brief as minister with responsibilities for waste, though this is unconfirmed.

Momentum

With many negative headlines on sewage discharges in recent months, Thérèse Coffey’s name was mentioned as soon as the cabinet reshuffle was announced.

However, in recent months the long-awaited publication of Simpler Recycling and more policy clarity around the packaging waste reforms had meant the sector was feeling more optimistic

Ahead of an election next year and further shuffles likely, it is hoped, but perhaps not expected, that he will provide some clarity to the packaging sector with a string of key EPR dates on the horizon.

Last week, on 20th August, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) published their Waste Management Plan for England. The plan, which the Government is legally obliged to update every six years under the European Union’s Waste Framework Directive, does not outline any new regulation but provides an overview of Waste Management in England.

While the Resources and Waste Strategy sets out a vision to move to a more circular economy, along with policies to achieve this, for example Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). The plan focuses on waste prevention programme for England, recognising the need for action from businesses, consumers, householders, and local authorities to achieve its objectives.

The plan reaffirmed that the 25 Year environmental Plan has committed Government to leave the environment in a better state than when we found it, with the Resources and Waste Strategy helping to meet this commitment. The strategy document released in December 2018, set out measures to eliminate avoidable plastic waste, tackle confusion over household recycling, and introduce EPR for packaging. The overall aim being to move from the inefficient ‘linear’ model of ‘take, make, use, throw’ to a more circular economy that prolongs the lives of materials, keeping resources in use for as long as possible and maximising their value.

The Resources and Waste Strategy identifies five ambitions:

• To work towards all plastic packaging placed on the market being recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025
• To work towards eliminating food waste to landfill by 2030
• To eliminate avoidable plastic waste over the lifetime of the 25 Year Environment Plan
• To double resource productivity by 2050
• To eliminate avoidable waste of all kinds by 2050

The second stage consultations for the Resources and Waste Strategy are not expected until 2021, despite originally planned for 2020, with various unforeseen circumstances these have been delayed (read more on this here). Despite this delay Defra have confirmed that they are still working towards the 2023 goal outlined in the strategies key milestones timeline shown below.

Read our summary of the responses to the initial consultation stage published in July 2019 here.

The strategy explained that EPR is a powerful policy approach which extends a producer’s responsibility to the post-use stage with full net cost recovery, this in turn “incentivises producers to design their products to make it easier for them to be reused, dismantled and/or recycled at end of life”. It also outlined a set of core principles defined to act as a framework for reviewing existing producer responsibility schemes, shown below.

With change on the horizon, it is important that producers remain aware and engage with the Government consultations, where possible, to help shape new policies. We are keen to work with our members before the second stage consultations are released to offer advice and share ideas, aiming to ensure producers are well informed and prepared, not only for the consultations but the changes ahead. We will notify members when the consultations are published in 2021, in the meantime, if you have any questions or thoughts on the Resources and Waste Strategy, EPR, or the consultations, please get in touch.

The Scottish Government has confirmed its plans for the introduction of a deposit return scheme for plastic drinks bottles, aluminium and steel cans and glass bottles.

Under the proposed DRS system, which would come into effect from 2020, consumers would pay a 20p deposit upon the purchase of a drink at a retailer, which can then be recouped when the packaging is returned for recycling.

Scotland is the first UK administration to outline its proposals for a DRS – with an ongoing consultation on the introduction of the measure in England, Wales and Northern Ireland due to close this week. Ministers will then consider the wider introduction and design of a DRS elsewhere in the UK.

Announcing the details in May, Scotland’s Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Roseanna Cunningham, said: “Scotland was the first part of the UK to commit to a deposit return scheme as part of our wider efforts to prevent discarded drinks containers from ending up in our streets and seas, and is now the first to outline its design – one that is ambitious in scale and scope, and which gives the people of Scotland a clear and straightforward way to do their bit for the environment.”

The measure, while seen as having the potential to combat littering and potentially boost recycling of drinks packaging, is not without its opponents, with some questioning the financial cost of a DRS and whether this outweighs the benefits of the scheme.

The Institute of Economic Affairs is among those to have questioned the merits of a DRS, and has suggested that setting up a DRS in the UK is a “very expensive way of achieving very little” and could lead to local authorities losing out on revenue.