Defra minister Rebecca Pow’s feeble attempt to explain the government’s packaging policies on national radio offers insight into political priorities. By David Burrows.
This time last week an email from the Foodservice Packaging Association’s (FPA) leadership team dropped into our inbox. “Martin Kersh interview with You & Yours,” read the subject line. High profile stuff. Alas, this was in fact news that the executive director’s BBC opportunity had been cancelled. Defra minister Rebecca Pow had – in the FPA’s words – “bumped off” Kersh. It was actually Pow that died during the show.
These days it isn’t hard to find satire in any government interview or communication. Yet the resource minister’s brief few minutes talking about packaging – specifically the forthcoming single-use plastic bans for businesses in England – helped explain why five years of consultations to revamp packaging regulations have led to … plastic straws, stirrers and cotton buds being banned. Wow!
Pathetic is the only way to describe progress. This year was supposed to bring a deposit return scheme, extended producer responsibility (EPR) for packaging and legislation for mandatory separate food waste collections, none of which will happen now until 2025 at the earliest. The data collection requirements of EPR will still be going ahead in October, but the big fees won’t kick in until 2025.
“Government will use the additional year to continue to discuss the [EPR] scheme’s design with industry and reduce the costs of implementation wherever possible,” said Defra in a statement last month.
Consultation, after consultation, after consultation has come and gone. Despite the impact of covid, businesses, industry, NGOs, experts and citizens all managed to craft responses to these (often long and complex) documents. Defra officials painstakingly sifted through them to produce responses that armed ministers with the tools they needed to push things forward. But nothing – apart from those restrictions on straws and stirrers – has actually happened.
“This is not a business issue […] it is not a local authority issue […] and it’s not the civil servants either […] this is ultimately senior politicians who have not shown good leadership, who have not prioritised the issue at the right times and ultimately there’s just not enough political will to have got this done over the past few years,” said Robbie Staniforth, innovation and policy director at compliance scheme Ecosurety in a video post on social media.
The cost of living crisis has replaced the pandemic as the government’s ‘get out of red tape free’ card. Some industry groups have egged the government on, of course, which is now resulting in regulations that food businesses support being shelved too. Mandatory food waste reporting was binned this month despite the majority of businesses wanting the new rules.
Pow: wow
The ministerial merry-go-round hasn’t helped. But Pow’s performance on national radio left us wondering whether it’s time to wrap up The Package as the incumbent resources minister seemingly called time on talking sense.
Challenged on what we should do with the ‘home compostable’ packaging, which is among the options set to replace the soon-to-be-banned polystyrene clam shells, she found herself in a complete muddle – first suggesting they’re put in the general waste and then talking about industrial composting sites before plumping finally for popping them in the plastic recycling bin because compostables “are still considered plastics”.
Go figure. For what it’s worth (which isn’t much), our advice would be to avoid paying a premium for home compostable plastics until the certifications are up to scratch and there is a route to reprocessing for those without a composting heap. The lion’s share of compostable packaging is designed for industrial processes but infrastructure to collect and effectively deal with it remains an issue.
UCL research has showed that 60% of products tested by households did not fully compost but many people may well be trying to compost items that are not designed for piles in the back garden. Home compostable is an “easier sell” because you can communicate more directly with the consumer – ‘take it home and compost it’ – says David Newman, managing director at the Bio-based and Biodegradable Industries Association (BBIA). “But the reality is this is a solution in around only 5% to 10% of households that actually home compost. The big volumes are in industrial composting,” he explains, adding that swapping to certain bio-based materials in the UK could save some 1MtCO2e.
Compostable counter-attack
Prepare for interest in compostables to surge as the bans come into force. Supermarkets also appear to be looking afresh at the opportunities – a compostable coalition has been launched, called ‘Closing the loop on compostables’. The UKRI-funded initiative will assess whether existing collection and treatment streams in the UK can collect, sort, and recycle compostable packaging. The advisory board boasts representatives from Ocado, Marks & Spencer and WWF, plus anti-compostable supermarket Tesco. Some 14 tonnes of compostable packaging – from tea bags and sweet wrappers to cups and cutlery – is being composted as part of a major trial. Companies including Vegware, Novamont, Tipa and Futamora, Biome Bioplastics have supplied their wares. A “first of its kind” cost-benefit analysis of the role of compostables is also being conducted by consultancy Eunomia (who else?).
The coalition will also be testing consumer behaviour. Terms like biodegradable and degradable are certainly muddying the waters for everyone – one branded box of single-use cups we spotted at a food and drink van recently proudly claimed on the outside that the items would happily biodegrade in the natural environment. Pow did tell us not to litter packaging – compostable or otherwise. It was about the only sensible thing she said.
The minister explained to You & Yours listeners that the single-use plastic bans had been a long time coming (consultations took place in 2021/22) so businesses should be prepared. It is also “pretty clear” what the banned items are – plates, bowls, trays, cutlery, as well as polystyrene cups and containers – she said. Local authorities appear confused though. Devon County Council is even reportedly claiming paper cups and cup lids are banned, which is not true. It is also claiming all single use plastic items are banned, which is far from the case.
The FPA is warning businesses could face fines if the government doesn’t ramp up its communication of the new rules. Scotland ran a national media campaign ahead of its bans which came into force on August 12th last year. Asked about the impact of the restrictions to date in a parliamentary question, Scotland’s environment minister Lorna Slater said “we will evaluate progress and this will inform our approach to continuing to support businesses to comply with requirements”. Whether any takeaways or other outlets have been fined for using banned items is as yet unclear (we have asked).
Wham bam – no thank you to bans
The FPA, a continual thorn in both politicians’ and officials’ sides, has suggested the guidance for England’s single-use plastic bans has come too late and is confusing. In a statement issued on Thursday last week, the FPA warned that “many small independent takeaway businesses are not aware of the ban or guidance” (we presume members have been surveyed?) and so stock may be scrapped. A large-scale publicity campaign is now needed, said Kersh – oh, and the bans must be delayed by a further three months.
The association says it has provided Pow with a “full brief” on the issues. She seemingly hasn’t bothered to put down her holiday paperback in order to read it – or the one provided by her officials – as she talked about working on all this with the “Food Packaging Association”. Oh to be a fly on the wall at the next Defra business readiness forum in September.
