International Review of Waste Management Policy - Department of ...

Repak members, and non-major producers, are not bound by Article 15, self
complying major producers are, and all producers are effectively required to assess
packaging against the CEN Standard on Prevention (EN 13428:2000). Local
authorities are responsible for enforcement of the Regulations, including this part of
them.
The EPA’s Core Prevention Team, in conjunction with the DoEHLG and Local
Authorities, is responsible for providing guidance on packaging waste prevention.
At the compliance scheme level, Repak provides guidance and technical services to
its members through its Packaging Waste Prevention Programme and advertises this
to its members. It notes that the Packaging Waste Prevention Programme is part of
the National Waste Prevention Programme administered by the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) and is co-funded by the EPA with the support of the
Department of Environment, Heritage & Local Government.
Repak also provides a packaging prevention service to its members, ‘Reduce and
Save’, using the technical guidance and expertise of a packaging technologist.
However, laudable as these measures are, it does not seem clear that the
Regulations are being enforced as strongly as they might be, especially in respect of
waste prevention.
12.9 Response from Public and Industry
The response from Industry on the whole has been to comply with their
responsibilities. Prior to March 2008, when the classification of Major Producer was
changed, Repak members numbered 2,333, with the estimated number of selfcomplying
companies being of the order 150. 240 These numbers will have changed in
the wake of the drop in the de minimis thresholds.
Industry stakeholders in the consultation process in the DoEHLG Statement of
Regulatory Impacts were concerned with the issue of cost implications associated
with the change in the de minimis threshold under the revised packaging regulations.
The industry stakeholders opposed to the change estimated that this could cost
between €2,000 to €3,000 for a business in hiring consultancy firms to carry out
work to assist in an assessment of packaging waste management and compliance.
This was regarded by the industry stakeholders as an unnecessary financial burden,
particularly on small businesses, given their scale of operation. 241
A number of submissions were received and their comments summarised in the
Statement on Regulatory Impacts produced by the DoEHLG. Some of these responses
include:
221
“The proposed changes make self-compliance too onerous and unattractive
an option for producers, thereby forcing them to join a compliance scheme. If
240 Information from Repak presentation to Eunomia, February 2009.
241 DoEHLG (2007) Statement on Regulatory Impacts, Strategy Group Consultation Responses 2006
on 2007 Regulations.
International Review of Waste Policy: Annexes