Regulation,self-regulation and environmental consensus: lessons from the UK packaging waste experience

This paper uses the case study of UK packaging waste policy to illustrate the problems of developing environmental self-regulation. In July 1993, the UK Secretary of State for the Environment ‘challenged’ British business to organise and run a self-regulatory scheme to recover between 50 and 75 per cent of packaging waste by 2000. But the response was dogged by differences of opinion within business and a lack of political will from business and government. Consequently, the businesses approached to develop this scheme declared self-regulation unworkable and lobbied government to introduce national legislation. This case study suggests that self-regulation works best where it fits the status quo by formalising existing practices or encourages incremental change to those practices. Where major changes to the status quo are needed, self-regulation may founder because it fails to bind together diverse sectors and companies which are differentially threatened by those changes and thereby fails to ensure voluntary compliance. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.