U.K. Retailers Might Have to Pay All Their Packaging Waste Costs

The packaging war is on. The British government might have its hands full with the monumental task of shepherding the country through the never-done-before Brexit, but it hasn’t forgotten about sustainability. It’s planning on forcing companies in the U.K. to foot the whole bill for the cost of disposing or recycling the packaging they produce, up from the 10 percent at the moment — and the beauty and fashion industries won’t be immune. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is currently consulting on the proposal, which if passed, will go into effect in 2023. The idea is that forcing companies to pay the full cost will encourage them to stop making packaging that’s excessive or hard to recycle. “Businesses will bear the full net cost of managing the packaging they handle or place on the market at end of life,” DEFRA said in the consultation document. “Subject to this consultation, this should include the cost of collection, recycling, disposal, the clear-up of littered and fly-tipped packaging, and communications relating to recycling and tackling littering.” Currently, the British taxpayer shoulders the brunt of the cost, which means that producers have been able to put packaging on to the market without taking account of the true

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