The Vending & Automated Retail Association (AVA) has called on the Government’s to rethink its decision to hike EPR base fees for fibre while reducing them for plastic.
AVA chief executive David Llewellyn said: “From both an environmental and industrial perspective, this move completely undermines the extraordinary progress our sector has made in moving away from single-use plastics”.
“Across the UK’s vending and coffee-to-go sector, we’ve seen a huge transition to paper-based cups: around 93% of all drinks we serve are now in paper cups — a shift the AVA Census reveals is driven not just by environmental credentials and ease of recycling, but also by consumer preference for higher quality and more sustainable packaging.
“At the AVA we are proud to be part of the Alliance for Fibre-Based Packaging. The Alliance provides an expert voice for the industry on key topics relating to fibre-based packaging. Focussing on the benefits of fibre and fibre-based composites (FBC) which perform critical packaging functions to protect food and other consumer goods, provide consumer safety and hygiene, and enable convenience and efficiency to meet today’s lifestyle needs.
“It is confusing that those investing heavily in fibre-based innovation should now be penalised, while fossil fuel-derived plastics receive a financial bonus. This is exactly the wrong signal to send to industry and consumers alike; it ignores real-world recycling rates and risks pushing us backwards, not forwards.
“If this policy is left unchanged, it threatens to undo years of hard-won progress: retailers could be forced back towards plastic because it’s cheaper, and British fibre packaging manufacturers, the real leaders in sustainable innovation, will be hamstrung. How does that fit with any definition of a ‘circular economy’ or a plan to reduce plastic waste?
“The Government must rethink these fee structures urgently. We should be supporting materials that are actually recycled at scale in the UK, reducing plastic dependency, and championing British industry. The current approach does the exact opposite.”
