The UK’s new EPR legislation is transforming the packaging industry by driving companies toward more sustainable practices and reducing some costs, argues Jon Brookes, partnerships director at Ecosurety, a UK-based regulatory compliance service.
Speaking to Packaging Insights at Packaging Innovations 2025, Brookes tells us that while EPR introduces many complexities, it can also bring opportunities. “We’ve worked with hundreds of producers in the UK and globally, particularly with brand owners, to help them understand the new UK EPR regulations.”
“The opportunity we see at the moment, with the onset of EPR, is that we’ll be able to help companies collect data and look at increasing the quality, diversity, and accuracy of the data so they can understand packaging materials and weight,” he explains.
“Then, the fees that can be applied to the EPR represent their own challenges from a commercial perspective. We’re starting to get into really interesting conversations about the best materials and products for businesses to sell on the market. The idea is that you can take these companies on a journey toward taking action. Another interesting area that we’re starting to see is where reuse applications can be used.”
He acknowledges that there are many “operational headaches” that Ecosurety is working through and “complexity in terms of regulation,” while adding that for the company “this is exciting as well, because we’re starting to raise the sustainable packaging agenda for businesses.”
UK packaging regulations
Brookes says that the UK’s packaging industry is already experiencing the “significant impact” of the EPR.
Jon Brookes, partnerships director at Ecosurety, at Packaging Innovations 2025.“There’s a shift in the point of obligation for businesses; there is more nuance. What that means is that big brand owners, who are putting out lots of packaging, have started to bring up this agenda. They are making visible decisions and effort, so that conversation has shifted beyond things like ‘plastic is bad, and something else is good.’”
“We are here today, at the trade show, for active innovation. Almost every talk that I’ve been to and every stand, we’re talking about sustainability. It comes with its challenges, and there isn’t any perfect answer. But what we’ve started to see is more joint-up action to find the best ways to use packaging to deliver the best environmental outcome.”
Discussing how Ecosurety supports its clients in ensuring compliance with sustainability regulations, Brookes says: “Ecosurety has been operating for over 20 years. Our purpose is all about trying to accelerate change. We’ve done that over the last few years through connecting our clients with recyclers and looking at how we can drive up recycling capacity.”
“We’ve done lots of work around flexible plastic as well, exploring things like curbside collections for flexible plastic. There are big industry initiatives that we’ve looked at, but in tandem to that, we are in the growing area of opportunities to help clients start to get a better handle of their packaging data, collecting much finer details on their packaging.”
He says that such “exciting conversations” have already enabled some Ecosurety clients to make changes that are going to “save significant sums of money from their change of format or change of material, which is an immediate benefit from a commercial perspective.”
“Equally, that should go in tandem with better environmental outcomes, reducing the resources required and putting their product into something which is easier to collect and recycle. Those are the kind of steps that we need to take to edge closer to a circular economy.”
The Global Reuse Summit 2025
Brookes also tells us about The Global Reuse Summit 2025, which Ecosurety will attend.
“City to Sea, a Bristol-based environmental charity, is running The Global Reuse Summit again this year. We’ve partnered with City to See on a number of things over the years, including through the reuse initiative that we’ve supported with our fund,” he explains.
“The Reuse Summit is another area that we’ve supported; the idea is to explore the opportunity for reuse. We’ve already started to see some engaged conversations around exploring reusable packaging, and that’s exciting.”
He describes reuse as “the ultimate goal,” adding that even though achieving it is difficult, “we’ll start to see more reusable packaging over the next ten years.”
“The Global Reuse Summit 2025 will have an in-person presence, but it’s going to be an online event as well so that it can spread the message of reuse on a global level and bring together lots of the industry partners that drive the shift to reuse.”
With additional reporting from Natalie Schwertheim at Packaging Innovations 2025
