(GUF) SCHEDULE 7

Environment Act 2021 - Resource Efficiency & Product Labelling - Signed, Sealed… Still Waiting for Delivery.

Credit where it’s due; the UK government has written some solid legislation. The Environment Act 2021 provides real potential to reshape how we design, label, and manage products, setting the stage for a more circular, repairable, and resource-efficient economy.

Is it as bold or detailed as the EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) or Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR)? No. But it’s still a vast improvement on what we’ve had before and that deserves recognition. Now, we just need to move from vision to action.

The Act lays the foundation for a UK-wide circular product economy. It gives ministers the power to enforce minimum design standards and mandatory product labelling to support more sustainable manufacturing and consumer choices.

The ultimate aim? To boost repair culture, cut waste at source, and drive smarter, longer-lasting design — once secondary regulations are finalised (expected 2025–2027 rollout).

Eco-Design Powers – What Can Be Enforced?

Under Schedule 7 of the Environment Act 2021, Ministers are empowered to introduce resource-efficiency standards requiring products to meet criteria such as:

• Energy efficiency
• Durability (e.g. minimum lifespan guarantees)
• Repairability (access to spares, ease of disassembly)
• Recyclability (e.g. ease of material separation, avoidance of composites)
• Use of recycled materials (e.g. minimum % thresholds)

These standards aim to eliminate resource-wasteful products and support a circular economy by design, not just by disposal.

Mandatory Environmental Labelling

This allows the government to require labelling schemes at the point of sale, helping consumers make informed choices.

Labels could include:

• Product lifespan or expected usage cycles
• Repairability score (tools required, spare part access)
• Recyclability rating (ease of separation, coatings, fixings)
• % of Recycled content
• Disposal or reuse guidance

It’s all about shifting the market away from throwaway culture and toward transparency, trust, and better design.

Green Public Procurement - Market Transformation Tool

Public sector tenders could reference these eco-design standards, ensuring suppliers comply in order to win contracts. This approach uses government spending power to drive circularity from both ends - regulation and procurement.

So… what are we waiting for? The legislation is there - the powers are granted - let’s go from intent to implementation. 45 things to know about the Act - link - waste labelling - link - schedule 7 - link - more like this (random) - link

(GUF) PPWR - A BIT LIKE pEPR - BUT GOOD

The EU’s new Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) is bold, detailed and extremely brave. Meanwhile, the UK’s pEPR essentially targets obligated producers, charges by material and weight and adds modulated fees (eventually) but it avoids all the good bits.

Rather than maintaining alignment for trade efficiency, environmental consistency, or ease of implementation, the UK has dropped or delayed alignment with key EU policies (e.g. PPWR, CEAP, Digital Product Passports), introduced less ambitious equivalents (e.g. Simpler Recycling vs. EU minimum collection requirements) and used Brexit freedoms as a justification for divergence even in areas where businesses and local authorities preferred regulatory continuity which suggests divergence is, at least in part, politically driven rather than evidence-led.

The EU has set binding targets to reduce plastic packaging consumption; meanwhile, the UK’s pEPR is doing the opposite by actively encouraging a switch from glass to plastic by penalising heavier, more circular materials and rewarding lightweight ones, regardless of recyclability. It’s not a plastic reduction plan it’s a plastic incentive scheme with better branding.

Whilst the EU is banning packaging with excessive void space (including those crisp packets that contain 80% air and 20% potato), the UK still seems to consider shipping air is a sovereign right.

The EU mandates reusable packaging targets by sector whilst the UK hopes someone might start a pilot scheme on tote bags doing their work for them.

The EU coordinates Deposit Return Schemes (DRS) and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) to close the material loop - two parts of the same strategy - collection and cost recovery, working together, meanwhile in the UK, DRS is treated like a completely separate species, as though it must never be seen in public with EPR for fear they might be… related.

The EU is building a circular packaging system whilst the UK is essentially building an invoicing system.

And producers? They’re smart, they’ll invest where and when the rules are clear, mandated, the targets are real and the outcome is measurable. If pEPR wants to be more than a spreadsheet with an invoice at the bottom, it’s time to grow up and catch up.

While we must work within the UK’s sustainability and recycling legislation, let’s aim higher. Work to EU standards — they’re smarter, stronger, and if you're compliant with them, the UK rules won’t just be covered… they’ll be outclassed. PPWR - link - more like this (Defra) - link - more like this (legislation) - link - Defra promotes plastic - link