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<p>The Government set out in the 25 Year Environment Plan, published in January last
year, its commitment to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste and to reform the packaging
producer responsibility system. Our Resources and Waste Strategy was published in
December last year and contains details on how we will do this, including measures
to incentivise packaging producers to make better, more sustainable decisions at the
design stage and point of manufacture. Through reforming the current system we will
require producers to fund the full net cost of managing the packaging they place on
the market, once it becomes waste. We will strengthen the incentives of these reforms
by also setting minimum ecodesign requirements.</p><p> </p><p>Other measures set out
in the Strategy, as well as in the Budget 2018, will lead to an increase in the supply
and demand for secondary materials. These include the introduction of a deposit return
scheme for drinks containers in England, introducing consistency in household and
business recycling collections in England and a tax on plastic packaging with less
than 30% recycled content, all subject to consultation. These measures will provide
a strong incentive for producers to design and make plastic packaging that uses less
virgin materials and is more easily recyclable.</p><p> </p><p>The consultations setting
out the Government’s proposals on the measures referred to above were published on
18 February this year and can be found at: <a href="https://consult.defra.gov.uk/environmental-quality/resource-and-waste-and-plastic-packaging-tax-consu-1"
target="_blank">consult.defra.gov.uk/environmental-quality/resource-and-waste-and-plastic-packaging-tax-consu-1</a>.</p>
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