Adnan Zeb-Khan, CRUK Scheme Manager says: “It’s becoming clearer that we need to prepare for a potential future policy change where an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme could become a reality.” Hence the theme of our annual conference in June was to be aware and prepared as an industry for forthcoming changes and for the industry to lead it, and not the government.

Adnan stresses “that’s why we are encouraging companies to be ahead of the curve and to work together with a shared interest to make potential EPR policies relevant, workable and as fair as possible to the wider sector. We have the opportunity of time to help shape any forthcoming schemes and perhaps even develop our own code of practices to reduce any impact on the sector going forward.”

In response CRUK has set up four working groups with its core members, to develop an EPR-based blueprint that is best suited and is workable within our sector.

The groups are comprised from the following:

• Data Management – necessary to measure performance.
• Sustainability Pledge – setting out realistic targets.
• Policy and Legislation – what do we want from an EPR scheme.
• Take-Back Scheme – assessing how the sector collaborates to develop such a scheme.

Our initiative is for our come members to get involved and to take a proactive approach and join in with the development of these four groups. All of the groups have now been given a broad agenda to work towards and we will be inviting other companies and personnel to join the discussions from the wider membership in due course as we believe everyone will have something to contribute. If you are interested in participating in any of the groups please email: info@carpetrecyclinguk.com with your name, company name and the group or groups you are interested in participating in.