A special packaging webinar featuring the LEGO Group and Carousel Calendars is now available for Products of Change members to watch on demand via the POC Resources platform.
Last week, Products of Change hosted a special Packaging Workstream session that took a deep dive into the intricacies and uncertainties surrounding the packaging Extended Producer Responsibility regulations in effect in many European markets and soon to be in full force here in the UK.
Since the beginning of the year, UK companies have been required to collect and report all their packaging data in accordance with the new EPR regulation before the financial obligations of the tax are revealed and implemented in 2025.
The idea of the EPR regulation is to shift the burden of cost attached to the end-of-life processing e.g. recycling from end users and customers onto the producers actually making and placing the products and packaging on the market.
It’s hoped that the finances recuperated through the tax will go towards enhancing the UK’s commercial recycling infrastructure while encouraging manufacturers and producers to opt for more recyclable – and thus, less costly – materials in their products and packaging.
However, due to the nature of the government’s current parameters of ‘brand owners’ and ‘producers’ and its failure to fully align with the models used in the production of licensed products, there remains confusion over who within the licensing space will and is responsible for collecting data and for the financial obligations.
Both the LEGO Group and Carousel Calendars shared insight on their progress with the reporting so far. The LEGO Group shared with POC members insight and intel from a selection of markets in which it operates where Extended Producer Responsibility tax is now already being collected as well as running through some of the design innovations it has adopted across its packaging in order to better navigate them.
Carousel Calendars, meanwhile, gave attendees a deep dive into its data collection processes, breaking down the different criteria needed to be reported across materials used, weight, and the products the team has so far applied the reporting measures to.
The session went some way towards providing a clearer picture on just who in the licensed products model will be responsible, but ultimately came down to one conclusion drawn upon by Products of Change’s legislation and materials innovation ambassador and advisor, Mike Swain.
“This is all about data, data, data. Collecting as much data as possible, right across the board,” he told attendees. “The safest thing to assume right now is that, no matter who you are in the chain of events, assume it will be your responsibility to collect and submit this data and then field the financial obligations.
“This is too important to get wrong and if we all, for now, assume responsibility lies with us, then we reduce the risk of falling foul of the taxman and landing in hot water when the financial obligations do come into effect here in the UK.”
Attendees were also directed to a new resource from the Publications Office of the European Union which can be found here and will offer further reading and insight on the subject.
Meanwhile, Products of Change will continue to unpick the complexities of the EPR parameters to present the most up to date information on the regulation as we learn it.