SUSTAINABLE SUPPLY CHAINS
January ushered in a new era of packaging legislation for manufacturers and distributors .
Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging ( pEPR ) is set to affect budgets , staff time , labelling and packaging design .
And , with costs for some businesses increasing up to 11-fold , pEPR may be one of the most influential developments of our time .
Sustainability Magazine spoke to Ruth Beckley , Director of Customer Service and Compliance at Valpak by Reconomy , about how to navigate the new demand for data and tackle rising costs .
What is changing ? “ Sustainability Magazine readers will be well aware of the complexity of global markets . But some might be less familiar with what takes place behind the scenes of packaging production . With the arrival of Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging ( pEPR ), our relationship with packaging is changing .
“ Packaging EPR legislation is expected to come into force in January 2025 . But nations as far apart as the Americas , Asia and Oceania are implementing their own schemes , and every EU member state must have a pEPR scheme in place by the end of this year .”
Why is it changing ? “ While each system varies , the principal aim of the legislation is to shift the financial burden of dealing with waste packaging onto packaging producers .
“ Typically , it also includes a financial incentive to improve design . Valpak modelling shows the link between redesign and cost benefit under the UK system , where switching to the ‘ best in class ’ packaging format for a 32-inch television , for example , would halve pEPR fees .
“ In the UK , data reporting has already started . The first pEPR fees will be charged in October 2025 and , from 2026 , the legislation will also include eco-modulation , a system which places a higher charge on non-recyclable packaging .”
About Valpak “ Valpak is the largest compliance scheme in the UK . We manage UK and international compliance for household names such as Coca-Cola Europacific Partners and Aldi .
“ In partnership with WRAP , and with the help of our packaging weight database , which holds over 50 million stock-keeping units from thousands of suppliers around the globe , we also produce the UK ’ s only comprehensive packaging data resource – the PackFlow report series .”
Uncertainty in the industry Valpak is encountering many brands that are still uncertain of their responsibilities – last year , our teams responded to an unprecedented 19,000 queries from businesses looking for advice on how to deal with the complexity of data reporting , or for ways to reduce the cost burden .
148 February 2025