Environment – Packaging Waste

In January 2023, new extended producer responsibility (EPR) for packaging regulations came into effect, which means that those responsible for generating packaging (i.e. the brand owner) that ends up with the consumer will have to pay a tax on the quantity they use.

However, while businesses will be expected to collect and report data, the date when charges will apply has been pushed out to October 2025.

The regulations apply to all businesses that:

• Have an annual turnover of £1 million or more (based on most recent annual accounts).
• Generate more than 25 tonnes of packaging in a calendar year (January to December).
• Carry out packaging activities (i.e. they sell products themselves under their own brand, import products in packaging, sell empty packaging)

In essence this means that any business selling products under its own brand name and/or packaging products themselves, will need to take action if they have a turnover of over £1 million and use over 25 tonnes of packaging in a year.

Packaging is defined as any material that is used to cover or protect products that are sold to consumers, which includes items such as a disposable coffee cup.

What You Need to Do

Those affected must register for the EPR for packaging online service.

Large organisations, which are defined as those with an annual turnover above £2m and handle more than 50 tonnes of packaging, should have registered from April 2023. Franchises or businesses that provide licences to other businesses may also need to include their franchisees or licencees tonnage in calculating the total tonnage they use. Groups of businesses also need to include the tonnages used by the subsiduaries in their calculations.

Large businesses needed to start submitting data from 1st July 2023.

Small organisations, with a turnover of between £1-2m and which handle between 25-50 tonnes of packaging, did not have to register until 2024 but were required to start collecting and recording data on all the packaging and packaged goods handled and supplied to consumers from 1st January 2023. The data collected over the year needed to be submitted in 2024.

Registration

Small businesses can calculate their obligations in one of two ways.   They can either register themselves or join a compliance scheme which will handle registration and provide a certificate as evidence of compliance. Those wanting to register in their own right can do so here

Businesses can register as a group if their combined turnover is below £5m and the holding company itself falls into the small producer category.

The charges to self-register are currently:

• Producer £776
• Small Producer £562
• Group: £776 for up to 5 subsidiaries then additional £90 each up to 20 subsidiaries and £45 each in excess of 20.

Businesses joining a compliance scheme will also need to pay the scheme’s charges (£564 for a single company - £345 for a small producer). Groups with a combined turnover below £5m will need to pay a registration fee of £564 plus £180 each for the first 4 subsidiaries, reducing to £90 each for between 5 and 20 subsidiaries and to £45 for any more.

There will be no charge for those small producers using the allocation method.

Collecting Data

The data businesses affected will need to collect includes the weight of any packaging that is designed to get to consumers and then becomes household or non-household waste, including packaging that ends up in street bins. This means it includes packaging, such as cup carriers as well as any packaging used to wrap products for consumers, such as sandwich packs, pizza boxes etc.

The data collected needs to be broken down by the weight of each type of material, as follows:

• Aluminium
• Fibre-based composite
• Glass
• Paper and cardboard
• Plastic
• Steel
• Wood
• Other, which includes any materials not listed above, such as cork, cotton, rubber etc.

Whether the materials above are used as primary or secondary packaging (such as display boxes) must also be stated and their relative weights recorded.

In the case of reusable packaging, data only needs to be submitted the first time it is used. So, a product, such as a pallet which may be used repeatedly, would only be reported the first time it is used.

The aim of the rules is to charge producers for packaging that is likely to end up in household waste. So, operators will need to provide clear evidence if some, or all, the packaging they report is unlikely to become household waste, otherwise the scheme administrator will include this in the waste management fees charged. An example would be outer packaging used to deliver products to another business that does not pass that packaging on to consumers.

Product packaging which is discarded by consumers within a business’ premises is classed as household waste and, therefore, included for fees.

Packaging Recovery Notes (PRN)

A Packaging Recovery Note (PRN) is an established system which is used to verify that a tonne of packaging waste has been recycled into a new product.   PRNs are a key part of the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2007 and are used by businesses to comply with packaging regulations.   These will continue to operate with their associated fees.

Estimated Fees

On 30 September 2024,  Defra updated their estimated fees for EPR costs that will be levied to all obligated companies in 2025.

The new estimated fees are as follows:

There remains a lot of uncertainty about the accuracy of the fees not least because there are still many obligated businesses that have not submitted data. 

Further details of the scheme can be found at:

• Small Producers Packaging Waste Responsibilities
• Extended Producer Packaging Waste Responsibilities

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