Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 6 February 2023 to Question 136755 on Plastics: Landfill, what assessment she has made of the steps that will need to be taken by producers to meet forthcoming extended producer responsibility for packaging requirements to reduce plastic waste going to (a) landfill and (b) incinerators.

Producers will need to start reporting data on the packaging they place on the market from October 2023. We have published guidance and an obligation checker to help packaging producers to prepare for Extended Producer Responsibility on the gov.uk website, including outlining what data producers will need to start collecting and reporting. This guidance will be continually updated with more detailed information.

The payments that producers will be required to pay to local authorities will be determined from April 2024. These payments will cover the costs for improved management of household packaging when it becomes waste, and provide for the collection of additional packaging materials for recycling such as plastic films and flexible packaging. This, together with higher recycling targets for packaging waste, will result in less packaging waste being sent to landfill and incinerators.