Food producers and retailers lobby to delay UK household recycling reforms

theguardian.com:

Britain’s biggest retailers and food manufacturers are stepping up lobbying on the government to delay landmark environmental reforms that would force them to pay for the collection and recycling of household packaging waste from next year.

Industry bosses have used Downing Street crisis talks arranged in response to soaring food prices to warn that the plans – due to come into effect in April 2024 – would drive up shopping bills further amid the cost of living crisis.

In meetings summoned by Rishi Sunak as food prices rise at the fastest annual rate since the 1970s in the past month, supermarket bosses and food manufacturers are understood to have asked ministers to halt the launch of the “extended producer responsibility” (EPR) scheme.

Under the plans, food producers and retailers that sell own-brand products will be obliged to report packaging waste data from January next year and pay the full cost of packaging waste disposal from April. The changes apply to companies with turnover of £1m or more, and the money would be paid to local councils to help fund green bin collections.

Business leaders argue the scheme will cost at least £1.7bn a year, saying the bulk of the cost would be passed on to consumers through higher prices on the supermarket shelves.

The government has promised such a scheme for years, with Michael Gove as environment secretary first putting it forward in 2018. However, progress has been slow, with delays blamed on the Covid pandemic, Brexit draining the government’s capacity to legislate, and political turmoil leading to a constantly shifting cast of ministerial appointments.

Karen Betts, the chief executive of the Food and Drink Federation, said: “They should consider delaying the EPR to take that cost