Every time an announcement is made of yet another delay to the implementation of EPR, it’s spun with the positive narrative, that this is for the better. It’ll give service providers more time to plan and prepare. It’ll give government and more time to refine how EPR is going to work.
This may be so, but there are very real concerns that despite all the efforts to date, EPR could well go the way of Scotland’s DRS, being endlessly postponed, until it leads to bankruptcy of one or more stakeholders.
The frustration for local authorities is immense. With constantly changing goal posts and no clear indication of when money raised by EPR will start filtering through to LA’s, how can they plan and ramp up services as needed? Waste volumes and operational costs are not declining while EPR is being fine-tuned.
Since EPR was first proposed in 2018, it’s been held up by technical challenges, multiple concerns, and retailers crying foul that it’ll costs them in both revenue and job losses. While this may cause some to pause, the reality is that there’s never been any disagreement that producers need to be held accountable for the pollution they produce.
Little else has been incentive enough to shift packaging towards more sustainable alternatives. It’s hoped that EPR will, but to achieve that it needs to progress to the starting line. What’ll it take to get there?
Many of the delays are a result of government prioritising different policies. Now, with an election looming who’s to say if EPR will move up the ranks. In theory, with recycling rates stagnating in recent years, it should. But politics always has its own agenda.
Given this state of limbo, how can local authorities equip themselves so that if and when EPR finally gets implemented they can scale up processes as quickly as possible? There are two key elements: expertise and collaboration.
Expertise in the form of people who have the skills to design and implement quickly. These are senior professionals that have an intrinsic understanding of the industry as well as an awareness of what opportunities and challenges the sector is likely to face. People skills as well as project management skills are equally important.
Collaboration involves building relationships with key industry stakeholders to understand what’s important to them and how to make EPR work so that the objectives of the scheme can be met. Many of the delays have resulted from opposing views from different stakeholders. It’s time to set those aside. EPR is ultimately about what is needed for a more sustainable and resilient economy, sometimes stakeholders need to be reminded of that.
