The new Packaging Regulations came into force over the last few years. The rules affect all businesses that bring packaged products to market, from initial packaging through to the elements used when putting products through packaging wrappers. The regulations are aimed at minimising the amount of packaging that is used. This is something that even Man and Van Slough companies will consider when delivering items for their clients. However, with many businesses unaware that the regulations even exist and very little enforcement currently taking place, what impact will the changes really have?
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The Problem of Waste
In this country we generate an extremely large volume of waste every year. Just in England this amounts to 177 million tonnes each year, and a vast quantity of this is sent to landfill. This increases the cost of dealing with the waste and leads to environmental issues. Companies that offer a Confidential shredding service found at sites like https://www.printwaste.co.uk/confidential-shredding/paper/ If we want to work towards becoming a ‘zero-waste economy’, we need to dramatically reduce the amount of rubbish that we generate. It is not possible to completely remove waste from our lives, but the regulations should help us to value our waste more by reducing levels, reusing and recycling what we can and then only throwing away items if we really have to.
The New Regulations
The changes that
have been made to the Packaging (Essential Requirements) Regulations came into
force back in late 2015. However, many in the industry may be unaware that
these regulations were originally implemented on 1st January 1999 to follow an
EU Directive. Since that time, there have been very few prosecutions for
businesses that have failed to comply. UK enforcement agencies have not adopted
a strict enforcement strategy against those who don’t comply.
With the regulations now updated, it is generally the role of the brand owners
or importers to comply with the regulations. It’s imperative that they feel
they have a moral duty to reduce the elements of waste within their product, as
it is unlikely that we will see any further enforcement of the regulations.
The Packaging Regulations are an important step towards achieving a ‘zero-waste
economy’. However, it will take a concerted approach and more enforcement for
the regulations to have a real impact on waste levels. Even four years later we
have yet to see whether these regulations will have a real impact on the
government’s aims to reduce our annual waste production.