Updated: New link to the delegation of approved/appropriate person form.
Packaging: what it is
‘Packaging’ is any material used to hold, protect, handle, deliver and present goods. This covers the whole packaging supply chain from the raw material to the finished goods.
Packaging producer: what an obligated producer is
You are an ‘obligated’ packaging producer if you, or a group of companies you are part of:
handle 50 tonnes of packaging materials or packaging in the previous calendar year, and
have a turnover more than £2 million a year (based on the last financial year’s accounts)
‘Handling’ means you:
carry out one or more of the activities in the table or have these activities carried out on your behalf
own the packaging on which the activities are carried out
supply packaging or packaging materials at any stage in the chain or to the final user of the packaging
Description of activities
Activity
Description
Raw material manufacture
Produce raw materials for packaging manufacture
Packaging conversion
Convert raw materials into packaging
Packing/filling
Put goods into packaging or put packaging around goods
Selling
Supply packaging to the end user
Importing
Import packaged goods or packaging materials from outside the UK (includes raw materials that will become packaging, for example, plastic pellets used to make bottles)
Service provider
A business that supplies packaging by hiring it out or lending it
Check the tonnage you handle
When you work out if you handle 50 tonnes of packaging or more, don’t include packaging or packing material you export or give to someone else to export. You must be able to demonstrate what packaging you’ve exported.
If you’re a holding company with one or more subsidiaries that handle packaging, you are a group and must combine all your yearly turnovers and weights of packaging handled to see if you’re an obligated packaging producer.
Small packaging producer status
You are classed as a small producer if you have a turnover:
between £2 million and £5 million
of less than £2 million but you are part of a company group that has an obligation
A small producer’s recycling obligation is based on turnover (to the nearest £10,000) and the main packaging material handled, not weight of packaging handled. You will need to provide proof of turnover or a set of audited accounts. This is known as the allocation method.
Licensors and pub chains
An explanation of what a licensor and pub operating business is can be found in the Regulations.
Make sure you know the type of packaging relevant to your business to check if you are an obligated producer, this is:
packaging or packaging materials with your trademark
around goods that carry your trademark
packaging or packaging materials members must buy from the head organisation or a business specified by the head organisation
Why you need to follow the packaging regulations
You must follow the regulations to help:
reduce packaging
reduce how much waste packaging goes to landfill
increase the amount of packaging waste that is recycled and recovered
Obligated packaging producers must register as a packaging producer every year. Your registration will provide your producer obligation – the amount of packaging in tonnes you are responsible for recovering and recycling. Once registered you must meet your obligation.
These are in addition to waste duty of care principles all businesses must follow.
Packaging producer: how to register
You must register with your environmental regulator by:
joining a compliance scheme who does this on your behalf
registering direct in the National Packaging Waste Database (NPWD)
Join a compliance scheme
Select an approved compliance scheme from the public register.
You join the scheme and for a fee they will register you with the correct environmental regulator and assist with your waste packaging recovery and recycling obligations.
Check the compliance scheme timescales and make sure you provide the correct information about your company and packaging waste.
Register direct
You need to register with the environmental regulator where your registered head office or main place of business is based.
To submit a registration you must be an ‘approved person’. This is a:
director or company secretary
company partner
sole trader
To get access to the NPWD you need to complete and return an authorised signatory form. Contact your environmental regulator to get a form. Once returned and accepted the NPWD will issue a login.
Use the delegation of approved/appropriate person form if you want to delegate your function to another person. Sign the form and send it to your environmental regulator.
Log in and fill in the registration form in the NPWD.
If you’ve registered before your information is copied into your new registration. You will need to check it and make any necessary amendments. If your obligation is more than 500 tonnes you must provide your revised operational plan by 31 January.
By 7 April you must:
enter information and data into NPWD
review your auto-generated packaging obligations and check data inconsistencies
upload supporting documents
submit your application for registration
have paid the registration fee
By 31 January the following year you must:
meet your recovery and recycling obligation for the calendar year
provide your revised operational plan
submit an annual certificate of compliance
What you need to enter into NPWD
Step 1: contact details and business information
Provide your:
registered office information, and any main site address where your packaging activities happen or where you collate your packaging data
Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code)
turnover (last set of audited accounts)
status – small producer, subsidiary, holding company or licensor
Groups can register:
as one group, the holding company can do this even if it’s not a packaging producer
individually
as a combination of individual subsidiaries and the holding company
Subsidiaries details you need to include are the:
company registration numbers
contact details, including addresses
Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code)
turnovers
main packaging activities of each subsidiary
whether any subsidiary is a small producer
Small producers can chose to register as such (obligation based on turnover) or as a packaging producer (obligation based on weight of packaging).
Step 2: packaging data
You must describe:
your main packaging activity (for example, sell packaging)
any secondary packaging activities (for example, import packaging)
how you worked out how much packaging you handled in the previous year
You must enter:
the amount (in whole tonnes) of packaging you supply to the next stage in the packaging chain
any packaging you import and any packaging around goods you import
materials you or another company exports for which you have proper documents
Don’t include:
packaging that has been used before unless it is imported
process waste
Step 3: review your recovery and recycling obligation
NPWD auto-generates your obligation from the data you entered into the tables. If you don’t fill out the tables correctly you will have the wrong recovery and recycling target so you need to follow the instructions in the NPWD carefully.
Amend any data inconsistencies and then submit.
Small producers must review their obligation calculated on the turnover and main material handled entered.
To find out how the producer obligation is calculated see Schedule 2 of the Packaging Waste Regulations 2007.
The table shows the current UK government recycling targets in percentages:
Material
2014 (%)
2015 (%)
2016 (%)
2017 (%)
Aluminium
46
49
52
55
Glass*
75
76
77
Glass by remelt*
65
66
67
Steel
73
74
75
76
Paper/ board
69.5
69.5
69.5
69.5
Plastic
42
47
52
57
Wood
22
22
22
22
*new glass targets announced by Defra for 2014 to 2016
Step 4: upload supporting information
Operational plan
If you have an obligation of more than 500 tonnes, you must send an operational plan. If you are registering the first time you must submit it with your application by 7 April. It must cover all the requirements of Schedule 3, Part 3 of the regulations. If you are re-registering you submit it by 31 January.
Consumer information obligations
If your main activity is selling packaging, you must give your customers information about:
return, collection and recovery systems they can use
their role in reusing, recovering and recycling packaging and packaging waste
what recovery and recycling symbols on packaging mean
how to get copies of waste strategy guidance
You must upload an explanation on how you will achieve this.
Packaging producer charges
You can’t pay online. You must pay by cheque, BACS or credit or debit card.
The charges for direct registration are:
producer: £776
small producer: £562
You can also register the group as a small producer if you’re a group of companies with a combined turnover under £5 million.
Group: £776 plus these subsidiary charges:
£180 each for the first 4 subsidiaries
£90 each for the next 5 to 20 subsidiaries
£45 for any further subsidiaries
Northern Ireland
There are different charges, contact the Northern Ireland Environment Agency.
PCS fee
When you join a compliance scheme, the scheme must pass on your registration fee to the appropriate authority:
single company: £564
small producer: £345
You can also register the group as a small producer if the group of companies has a combined turnover under £5 million.
Group: £564 plus these subsidiary charges:
£180 each for the first 4 subsidiaries
£90 each for the next five to 20 subsidiaries
£45 for any further subsidiaries
Late fees
If you register with a compliance scheme after the registration deadline you will have to pay an additional late fee of £110.
New information fee
If you need to update your information during the registration year there is no charge for making a minor change. If you need to correct your obligation or packaging handling data (for example, following an inspection by your environment regulator) the charge is £220.
Business changes
Tell your environment regulator within 28 days if a change to your business means the information you supplied in your registration needs updating.
Cancel registration
Do this immediately if you become a member of a producer compliance scheme or stop being a producer.
Financial difficulties
Tell your environmental regulator immediately if your business has:
a winding up order, or a resolution for voluntary wind-up
entered insolvency, receivership or administration
Comply with your registration
Once registered you must meet your obligations.
Get evidence
You can recover and recycle packaging that your business handled or supplied yourself.
You must get evidence of waste packaging recycling and recovery equivalent to the weight of your obligation from accredited reprocessors and exporters. They (or yourself if you are accredited) can issue electronic packaging recovery notes (ePRNs) and electronic packaging export recovery notes (ePERNs) for the waste packaging they recycle or recover.
While you can’t use the NPWD to carry out financial transactions for evidence notes, it will record and track ePRN/ePERNs credited to your account, and show the remaining balance of your obligation for which you still need evidence.
Certificate of compliance (CoC)
The NPWD generates your CoC. It will say whether your obligation has been met. Your authorised person must check it’s correct, and then submit it on the NPWD.
The deadline is 31 January immediately following the end of the calendar year.
Penalties
If you fail to meet your legal obligations, or provide false or misleading information you may face prosecution under criminal law.
In England and Wales there are also civil penalties. These include:
fixed penalty fines for minor offences
higher fines for more serious offences
an enforcement undertaking: an offer, formally accepted by your environment regulator (in England it is the Environment Agency, or Natural Resources Wales), that redresses the impact of your non-compliance
Public Register and disclosure
By law, we must put your details on a public register. This will include the name and address of your registered office or your main place of business for each site.
If you think any information you provide about your business is confidential, contact your environment regulator and explain why. Be aware that under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 your environment regulator may have a legal duty to disclose information about you if asked.
Contact your environmental regulator
England
Environment Agency
Producer Responsibility Regulatory Services
Quadrant Two
99 Parkway Avenue
Sheffield
S9 4WF
Telephone: 03708 506 506
Email: packaging@environment-agency.gov.uk
Scotland
Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA)
Producer Responsibility Unit
Erskine Court
The Castle Business Park
Stirling
FK9 4TR
Telephone: 01786 457 700
Email: producer.responsibility@sepa.org.uk
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA)
Producer Responsibility Unit
Klondyke Building
Cromac Avenue
Gasworks Business Park
Lower Ormeau Road
Belfast
BT7 2JA
Telephone: 028 9056 9338
Email: packaging@doeni.gov.uk
Wales
Producer Responsibility Unit
Natural Resources Wales
Rivers House
St Mellons Business Park
St Mellons
Cardiff
CF3 0EY
Telephone: 0300 065 3000
Email: packaging@naturalresourceswales.gov.uk
Legislation and regulations
The producer responsibility regime implements the Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste (94/62/EC).
The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2007 (as amended) cover recycling and recovery, while the The Packaging (Essential Requirements) (Amendment) Regulations 2013 cover single market and design and manufacturing aspects.