// British retailers step up their campaign to delay the Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging (EPR) scheme due to come into force in 2024
// Retailers, food producers and trade bodies warn the new recycling scheme will lead to higher costs for consumers
Several British retailers and food manufactures have increased lobbying for the government to delay its recycling reforms that are due to come into effect next year.
According to The Guardian, bosses have used the recent Downing Street crisis talks to ask ministers to pause the launch of the Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging (EPR) scheme.
Expected to come into force in 2024, EPR will apply to companies with a turnover of more than £1m and sell own-brand products or import products in packaging or sell non-UK made plastic products through an online marketplace.
Subscribe to Retail Gazette for free
Sign up here to get the latest news straight into your inbox each morning
Businesses that fall under the scheme will be required to report packaging waste data from January and pay the full cost of waste disposal from April.
However, industry bosses have warned the scheme will add £1.7bn in costs each year and will result in it being passed onto the consumer through high food prices.
The British Retail Consortium asked the government to “urgently rethink” the recycling reforms.
Meanwhile, Iceland warned that new government regulations are piling up costs for retailers.
“The government is driving up costs … It is within [its] control to look at what individual departments are doing and pause, stop and rethink,” it said.
Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter
