Green Matters: Harnessing The UK's Environmental Improvement Plan ' Resources And Waste

• Law Firm: Gowling WLG
• Subject Matter: Environment, Climate Change, Waste Management
• Author: Mr Ben Stansfield and Emma Cartledge-Taylor
• Published date: 28 February 2023

The UK's Environmental Improvement Plan 2003 (the EIP) is central to the UK Government's climate change strategy and will create important opportunities for the commercial world. Following the first two articles in our Green Matters series, we turn to look at goals five and six in the EIP's 10-point framework: maximising our resources, minimising our waste; and using resources from nature sustainably.

Goal 5: Maximise our resources, minimise our waste

Key points

Having published the UK's Resources and Waste Strategy in 2018 (discussed in our earlier article after the release of the 2018 strategy), the EIP recognises that there is still much to do in this area. The pandemic was a setback, with a spike in single-use products (facemasks and testing kits in particular) causing residual waste to increase. The EIP therefore sets a course to redouble our resources and waste efforts.

Under the new EIP, there are a large number of waste related targets:

• Eliminate avoidable waste by 2050.
• Eliminate avoidable plastic waste and waste crime by 2042.
• Half residual waste per person by 2042 (waste sent to landfill incinerated, or used in energy recovery) to 287kg.

A number of interim targets, to be achieved in the next years (by end of January 2028):

• Reduce residual waste produced by person by 24% (i.e. not to exceed 437kg).
• Reduce residual waste in total by 21% (i.e. not to exceed 25.5 million tonnes).
• Various reductions in relation to residual municipal waste - food, plastic, paper and card, metal, and glass.

Plastic waste

To achieve the goal of eliminating plastic waste by 2042, the EIP highlights recent bans on single-use plastics and the introduction of a plastic packaging tax, but also points to future steps in relation to fibre-based composite cups; coffee cups, wet wipes, cigarette filters and sachets.

Deposit return scheme

A deposit return scheme (DRS) was first announced in 2019 and the EIP confirms that it will be introduced from October 2025, giving two and half years for the scheme to be designed and implemented. A DRS scheme will aim to make significant inroads into recycling the 14 billion plastic drinks bottles and nine billion drinks cans that the UK consumes every year. Putting this in place will mean establishing new supply chains and will also present new duties and opportunities for retailers, who will most likely be administering the scheme.

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