Draft Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) (Amendment) Regulations 2025

Sarah Dyke Excerpts

Tuesday 9th December 2025 General Committees

[Sarah Dyke (Glastonbury and Somerton) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve on this Committee with you in the Chair, Mrs Hobhouse. The Liberal Democrats welcome the Government’s desire to make manufacturing and packaging more sustainable, to minimise waste and to create the foundations for a truly circular economy. As a party, we recognise that the previous system was not fit for purpose following the Environmental Audit Committee’s inquiry, and we supported the Committee’s recommendations to incentivise better recyclability and transparency of products to help the transition to a circular economy.

I am fortunate to represent a constituency with a thriving food and drink sector, but as producers are facing substantial added costs, they need to be properly supported, not punished, during the transition to a more circular economy. Although we wholly support the Government’s intention to tackle waste by improving recycling processes, we remain unconvinced that the introduction of EPR in its current form will achieve the desired goals.

By creating a system that will impose unaffordable added costs on producers, the Government run the risk of forcing them to use cheaper and less recyclable materials, or else jeopardising the viability of key local businesses that are driving growth, which is something the Government should be committed to protecting.

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[Dame Angela Eagle]

We are trying to take the scheme forward in a positive, iterative way. The consultation is not kicking the can down the road; it is recycling the can to see what we can do to ensure that the system is changed and iterated to fit more effectively, to drive up recycling rates in our economy and to move towards a circular economy. I hope the hon. Member feels reassured by that response.

[Sarah Dyke]

The Liberal Democrats have urged the Government to consider exempting pubs from the EPR, and to review the scheme’s scope and timeline to stop further damage to the hospitality sector, which we all know is already struggling. Will she commit to monitoring that progress as the scheme is rolled out so that pubs and the hospitality sector are not hit further?

[Dame Angela Eagle]

I know that the responsible Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Coventry East, has met the industry, and that workshops have been held over recent weeks to urgently and carefully identify options that address the issues that the hon. Member for Glastonbury and Somerton raises. We all need to find positive ways forward to address those issues. I hope she is reassured that my hon. Friend the Member for Coventry East is on to that one and already taking action. I hope that, with those explanations, this measure has the support of the Committee.

Question put and agreed to.