Guidance for English councillors on waste and recycling reforms
16 April 2025
The passing of the Environment Act in 2021 heralded a number of waste and recycling reforms in England, many of which are now coming into effect or already shaping service provision across the country.
With local government needing to play a critical role in successfully rolling out these policies, Resource Futures has produced a set of guidance on behalf of the Local Government Association, helping councillors to understand how the various policies work together, key timelines for implementation and advising them how they can best prepare for change.
The guidance covered four key upcoming waste and recycling policies:
• Simpler Recycling reforms
• Deposit return schemes (DRS)
• Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging (pEPR)
• The inclusion of Energy from Waste (EfW) in the UK Emissions Trading Scheme.
The guidance will help councillors understand the long-term vision behind these policies and inform key decisions around how services are delivered. The guidance also provides easy-to-explain breakdowns of the above policies, which will serve to aid councillors as they communicate these changes to constituents and support positive recycling behaviours in their communities.
