The Covid-19 pandemic has raised urgent questions about public health and hygiene in almost every sector of society, with packaging no exception. With consumers and retailers turning back to single-use for hygiene reasons, what does the future hold for reusables? Olivia Rutherford investigates.

BBIA Managing Director David Newman looks at how Italy’s new EPR scheme for compostable packaging will work and what lessons it can provide the UK as it revises its packaging EPR system.

The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) and the Industry Council for Packaging and the Environment (INCPEN) are working with packaging compliance company Valpak to update the PackFlow material reports in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Cafes, restaurants and bars are being encouraged by a new campaign to accept customer reusable cups when they reopen.

The government has told local authorities that there will be no flexibility in the recyclable materials that they will be required to collect from households under collections consistency plans, but there may be room for manoeuvre on how those materials are collected.

Plant-based packaging company Vegware has teamed up with recycling company Paper Round to launch a compostable packaging collection service across London, Brighton and Sussex.

Behaviour change company Greenredeem has called on Defra to reconsider its plans to roll out a deposit return scheme (DRS) for single-use beverage containers and invest instead in convenient recycling solutions that create ‘sustained behaviour change’.

Weekly kerbside collections for recyclables and food waste will resume service from 1 June, Cardiff City Council has announced.

The plastics export sector has urged the government to increase financial support for companies, amid concerns over the impact of Covid-19 on supply chain operations.

A new study released last week (8 May) supported by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) suggests that regulatory barriers and technological ‘lock-in’ are hampering plastic packaging recycling efforts.