England’s flagship collection and packaging reforms are expected to achieve just 31% of the reduction in residual waste needed to meet the government’s statutory 2042 target.
The government’s updated residual waste reduction delivery plan says Simpler Recycling, extended producer responsibility for packaging (pEPR) and the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) will collectively deliver “just under a third” of the required reduction.
Defra says additional policies beyond these reforms will be needed to close the remaining gap. These will be informed by the delayed Circular Economy Growth Plan and the department’s wider circular economy programme.
The delivery plan estimates that the three reforms will provide between 90% and 100% of the reductions required to meet England’s interim 2030 targets, depending on the specific target.
However, the plan still lists March 2027 as the deadline for introducing plastic-film collections. Defra confirmed in the same week that mandatory collections of plastic films and flexible packaging would be delayed until April 2030.
It is therefore unclear whether the modelling has been revised to reflect the delay, particularly the estimate that the reforms will deliver up to 100% of the reductions required for the 2030 interim targets.
Defra’s new Environmental Improvement Plan annual progress report estimates England generated 31.4 million tonnes of residual waste, excluding major mineral wastes, in 2024.
This was 2.6% lower than in 2023 and 3% below the 2019 baseline.
On a per-person basis, residual waste fell from 575kg in 2019 to 535kg in 2024, representing a reduction of 6.9%.
The government has committed to reducing this to 287kg per person by 2042, which is broadly equivalent to a 50% reduction from 2019 levels.
An interim target requires residual waste to fall to no more than 437kg per person by December 2030. This means a further reduction of 98kg per person is required from the latest reported level.
Municipal residual waste totalled 26.1 million tonnes in 2024, virtually unchanged from the previous year. This was equivalent to 445kg per person, down 5.1% compared with 2019.
Defra said the latest figures predate the introduction of its main collection and packaging reforms.
Packaging EPR was introduced from April 2025, while the Simpler Recycling requirements for households took effect on 31 March 2026, subject to transitional arrangements for some local authorities.
The department said it expects waste levels to fall “significantly” over the next few years as the reforms take effect.
Waste had the highest…
Source: circularonline.co.uk
