The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997 transposed an EU Directive into UK law in 1997.  This law requires all businesses with a turnover of over £2 million pa and that ‘handle’ packaging exceeding certain threshold tests to calculate the amount of packaging they handle, to register with the Environment Agency each year and obtain evidence of recycling based upon the type and amount of packaging handled in the preceding calendar year.

These regulations will remain in force until 2023 when they will be superseded by the Extended Producer Responsibility Regulations, which are currently in the consultation phase (until June 2021).

Firstly, do you ‘handle’ packaging? This includes manufacturing, converting, packaging / filling, importing or selling either empty packaging or packaging around products that you buy and sell.

If you handled more than 50 tonnes in the preceding calendar year AND have a turnover of £2 million or more, than you are likely to be obligated

Packaging is defined as ‘products made of any materials of any nature to be used for the containment, protection, handling, delivery, and presentation of goods’. Recovery and recycling obligations are based on the tonnages of plastic, cardboard, paper, steel, aluminium, glass and timber packaging handled during the preceding year.

Common examples of packaging include:

• Plastic bottles, blister packs, film, bags, strapping, expanded polystyrene,
• cardboard boxes, trays and layer pads, laminated drinks cartons,
• steel cans, tins, strapping, drums, cages and stillages,
• aluminium cans, foil and trays, wine bottle closures,
• glass bottles, jars,
• wooden pallets, crates, trays
• and any other materials or composite materials eg corks, hessian sacks, ribbons, ceramic pots

You need to check that you exceed the threshold tests of minimum £2 million turnover and are handling over 50 Te of packaging in the previous calendar year.

You then need to calculate the amount of packaging handled by material type (plastic, paper/card, glass, steel, aluminium, wood and other), noting where the packaging came from, what you did to it and to whom it was sold on to.

This data is then submitted to the Environment Agency along with an annual fee and you must then obtain sufficient recycling evidence in the form of Packaging Recovery Notes (PRNs) to offset your obligation. PRNs are bought from accredited packaging reprocessors and exporters who can only generate this evidence AFTER they have physically recycled the waste.  In effect, this is a variable subsidy paid by obligated packaging producers to the waste and recycling industry.

WasteCare Compliance will assist you with all the calculations and will register you via our Producer Compliance Scheme (PCS) and obtain the necessary evidence on your behalf.

The regulations are confusingly named as it is not an obligation on the packaging WASTE you produce but on the packaging you HANDLE.

Examples of businesses that don’t create any of their own backdoor waste might be importers or wholesalers, but they may still be obligated because they ‘handle’ packaging.

If you are unsure, then please contact the WasteCare team and we will talk through your scenario.

Possibly, depending upon what activities you do carry out on packaging and whether this includes one or more of the obligated activities. For example, importing, wholesaling and retailing are all likely to attract an obligation even if you simply supply on packaged goods in the same form that they were delivered to you.

It is good practice to segregate, bale and sell on for recycling any recyclable waste streams (including packaging) that you generate. This should reduce your costs and benefit the environment however, it does not directly affect your obligations under the regulations. You must still obtain ‘recycling evidence’ in the form of Packaging Recovery Notes (PRNs) from accredited packaging waste reprocessors or exporters. The cost of this evidence is left to the free market and is determined by supply and demand so the more that is recycled, the lower the cost. Therefore, if you are feeding waste into the UK recycling system, you are helping keep the costs of compliance down.

As the Packaging Regulations are implemented nationally, they only apply to packaging inside the UK. Therefore, if you import any empty packaging or products with packaging around them, you will assume full responsibility for everything that happened to the packaging upt until  the point of import.  Youmay also have an obligation on what happens afterwards depending upon who you supply on to and what they do with the packaging.

The flip side applies for any packaging that you export or that you know your customers will export.   This packaging attracts a nil net obligation because it will end up outside the UK. However, you need to count the type and amount of packaging and report this and retain evidence of its export to support your claim.

A producer obligation is based upon:

•  the weight of packaging handled x the relevant activity % x the annual % recycling targets for that year.

There are 6 business activities, 7 material categories, 3 packaging types (individual / primary, group / secondary and transit / tertiary) and the targets change each year so it can be quite a challenge to get your head around the calculations

WasteCare Compliance have over 20 years’ experience taking you through the process and setting up data templates that you can use and reuse each year. We will discuss how your business operates and then explain which activities and packaging streams are relevant and how we can obtain the necessary data. When we have done that with you once, it becomes much simpler in subsequent years and we are available to help and check at any time

There are several criminal offences associated with these regulations including failure to register, obtain PRN evidence, or submitting reckless or false data (it must be as accurate as reasonable possible).  The agencies have prosecuted many businesses over the last 20 plus years resulting in fines up to £600,000 for an ‘Environmental Offence’.

Since 2011, for those businesses that have not fully complied with the regulations in the past but who wish to fully cooperate and ‘clear the decks’ there is an alternative ‘voluntary undertaking’ system, whereby the Producer makes an offer to the Agency to fund an acceptable environmental project of their choice in exchange for wiping the slate clean.

WasteCare Compliance are experienced in taking businesses through the voluntary undertaking process and making this as hassle and pain free as possible.

• Cost guarantee
• Technical and regulatory support
• Free recycling of WEEE and batteries (minimum collection thresholds apply)
• Free audit and obligation assessment
• Weight analysis