Managing controlled waste - code of practice: duty of care - business and regulatory impact assessment

Overview

The following document is an addendum to the document “Extended producer responsibility for packaging Full Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA)” ^[1] prepared for the updated Duty of Care Code of Practice for managing controlled waste (hereafter ‘the Code’)

The Scottish Government, in partnership with the UK Government, Welsh Government and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland, consulted on proposals to require collection of plastic film in 2021 as part of proposals for a UK-wide packaging EPR scheme consultation^[2]. The commitment to introduce collections was confirmed in the four nations government response^[3] in 2022.

The Scottish Government published partial Business and Regulatory Impact Assessments in 2021^[4] and 2023^[5] to accompany the consultation and Full BRIA to accompany the introduction of The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024^[6]. These included assessment of the collection for recycling of plastic films from both household and the non-household municipal sector.

As a four-nation commitment, the collection for recycling of plastic films is also assessed in the UK-wide Impact Assessments for packaging extended producer responsibility, published by the UK Government in 2021^[7], 2022^[8] and 2024^[9].

The commitment to the collection for recycling of plastic films from the non-household municipal sector in Scotland is proposed to be implemented by updating the Duty of Care: Code of Practice for managing controlled waste (“the Code”). The Code provides practical guidance to people on how to discharge the duties imposed on them by section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, including those relating to recycling. The proposed update to the Code makes clear that dry recyclable waste includes plastic film as a subset of plastic, and therefore that existing collection and recycling obligations should also apply to plastic film.

This addendum sets out additional information relating specifically to the introduction of plastic film collections. The addendum should be read in conjunction with the Full Scottish BRIA 2024 and UK Impact Assessment 2024 for extended producer responsibility for packaging to ensure the context of earlier decision making and measures is fully understood.