Guidance

Packaging waste: prepare for extended producer responsibility

How UK organisations can prepare for extended producer responsibility (EPR) for packaging.

The way UK organisations responsible for packaging must carry out their recycling responsibilities is changing.

If you’re affected by the new extended producer responsibility (EPR) for packaging, you must take steps to collect the correct packaging data from 1 January 2023.

Who needs to take action

The regulations will apply to all UK organisations that handle and supply packaging.

You must take action to comply if all the following apply:

  • you’re an individual business, subsidiary or group (but not a charity)
  • you have an annual turnover of £1 million or more (based on your most recent annual accounts)
  • you’re responsible for over 25 tonnes of packaging in a calendar year (January to December)
  • you carry out any of the packaging activities listed

Packaging activities

  • packaging own-brand products to sell to UK consumers
  • using a third party to package and sell own-brand goods to UK consumers
  • using ‘transit packaging’ to protect goods during transport so they can be sold to UK consumers
  • importing own-brand and third-party packaged products into the UK to sell to consumers, unless doing so on behalf of a third party (such as a supermarket)
  • allowing third parties based outside the UK to sell packaged products or empty packaging through an online marketplace that you own
  • hiring or loaning out reusable packaging to UK third parties
  • making and then selling empty packaging to third-party organisations that do not need to take action under the regulations

What you need to do

Under the new regulations, you may need to:

  • collect and submit data on the packaging you handle and supply
  • pay a waste management fee
  • buy packaging waste recycling notes (PRNs) or packaging waste export recycling notes (PERNs) to meet your recycling obligations

The steps you must take to comply with the regulations will depend on whether you are classed as a ‘small’ or ‘large’ organisation. This is based on:

  • your annual turnover
  • how much packaging you handle and supply each year

If you sell packaged goods or empty packaging in the UK, you may also need to submit ‘nation data’. This is information about which country in the UK your packaging has been sold, hired or loaned in.

You can use a compliance scheme to complete certain steps on your behalf.

If you’re a small organisation

You will be classed as a small organisation if either of the following apply:

  • your annual turnover is between £1 million and £2 million and you’re responsible for handling and supplying more than 25 tonnes of empty packaging or packaged goods through the UK market
  • your annual turnover is over £1 million and you’re responsible for handling and supplying between 25 tonnes and 50 tonnes of empty packaging or packaged goods through the UK market

You should base your annual turnover on your most recent annual accounts.

Your total weight is the amount of packaging handled or supplied through the UK market in a calendar year (January to December).

To comply with the regulations, you must:

  • take steps to record data about all the empty packaging and packaged goods you handle and supply through the UK market from 1 January 2023
  • register for the EPR for packaging online service (registration opens for small organisations in 2024)
  • pay an annual fee to the environmental regulator from 2024
  • submit data about empty packaging and packaged goods you handled or supplied through the UK market throughout 2023

You’ll need to submit your data between 1 January 2024 and 1 April 2024. If you miss the deadline, you may need to pay a penalty charge.

If you’re a large organisation

You will be classed as a large organisation if both of the following apply:

  • you have an annual turnover of £2 million or more
  • you’re responsible for handling and supplying more than 50 tonnes of empty packaging or packaged goods in the UK

You should base your annual turnover on your most recent annual accounts.

Your total weight is the amount of packaging handled or supplied through the UK market in a calendar year (January to December).

To comply with the regulations, you must:

  • take steps to record data about the empty packaging and packaged goods you handle and supply in the UK from 1 January 2023
  • register for the EPR for packaging online service from April 2023
  • pay a fee to the environmental regulator
  • buy PRNs or PERNs to meet your recycling obligations
  • submit data about empty packaging and packaged goods you handled or supplied through the UK market

You’ll need to submit data every 6 months.

For the period January to June 2023, submit data between 1 July 2023 and 1 October 2023.

For the period July to December 2023, submit data between 1 January 2024 and 1 April 2024.

If you miss the deadline, you may need to pay a penalty charge.

For any packaging you handle and supply that is collected by local authorities from households or street bins, from April 2024 you must pay the scheme administrator:

  • a fee
  • a waste management fee

If you’re a parent company, group or subsidiary

If you are a parent company that is responsible for a group of subsidiaries, you can either register for the EPR for packaging online service (registration opens in April 2023) as an individual organisation or on behalf of your group.

If you register as an individual organisation, your subsidiaries can register individually if they meet the turnover and tonnage requirements.

Who must submit nation data

Nation data is information about which country in the UK your packaging has been sold, hired or loaned in. If your organisation needs to take action to comply with the regulations, you must submit nation data if you’re responsible for any of the following:

  • selling any filled packaging to consumers
  • selling empty packaging to UK organisations that do not need to comply with the regulations
  • selling empty packaging directly to consumers in the UK
  • hiring and loaning out reusable packaging
  • owning an online marketplace that allows other organisations to sell their empty packaging and packaged goods to UK consumers
  • importing packaging to the UK that you discard without selling or exporting it

You must submit your nation data for the 2023 calendar year by 1 December 2024.

If you miss the deadline, you may need to pay a penalty charge.

Collecting and submitting your packaging data

Your organisation should start preparing now to capture your packaging data.

Your data submission must include the weight of:

  • individual materials in the packaging you handle and supply
  • materials used in your ‘primary’, ‘secondary’ and ‘transit’ packaging
  • packaging likely to become household or non-household waste
  • packaging likely to end up in street bins

The scheme administrator will use your 2023 data to calculate your waste management fees for the financial year 2024 to 2025.

The regulator will use your 2023 data to calculate the amount of PRNs and PERNs you must buy to cover your recycling obligations for the 2024 calendar year.

From 2025, the scheme administrator will adjust your waste management fees depending on the cost of recycling the materials used in the packaging you handle and supply.

How to report material type

You must collect data on the weight of individual material types used in the packaging you handle and supply. Give all weights to the nearest tonne (1,000kg).

You should categorise your data by the following materials:

  • aluminium
  • fibre-based composite
  • glass
  • paper or cardboard
  • plastic
  • steel
  • wood
  • ‘other’

Other materials could include:

  • bio-degradable plastics – compostable plastics made of plant-based products
  • cork
  • cotton
  • flax-based products
  • nitrile
  • rubber
  • silicone

You must report each material type separately. For example, you may report that you have handled and supplied 20 tonnes of paper and 5 tonnes of plastic.

If you report materials under ‘other’, you must state the weight of each material type.

You must also state how much of each material is used in the ‘primary’, ‘secondary’ or ‘transit’ packaging you handle and supply.

For example, if you handled or supplied 20 tonnes of paper, you may report that you used:

  • 10 tonnes in primary packaging
  • 10 tonnes in secondary packaging

You must also submit the weight of packaging that may end up as household and non-household waste.

Primary packaging

Primary packaging is the individual container that you store goods in to sell to consumers. This is called a ‘sales unit’.

For example, if you sell peas in steel tins with paper labels, the primary packaging is ‘steel tin’ and ‘paper label’.

Secondary and shipment packaging

Secondary packaging is for grouping several ‘sales units’ for selling or shipping purposes. Organisations may use secondary packaging to display goods in shops.

Shipment packaging is a type of secondary packaging for shipping single or multiple sales units to consumers. This includes cardboard boxes and mailing bags.

For example, if you place one or more tins of peas into a cardboard box, then sell the box to a retailer or ship it to the consumer, the secondary packaging is ‘cardboard box’.

Or if you place a mobile phone in a cardboard box and then place the box into a mail bag before shipping it, the shipment packaging is ‘mail bag’. The primary packaging is ‘cardboard box’.

Transit packaging

Transit or tertiary packaging is used to group secondary packaging units together to protect them while being transported or handled.

Transit packaging does not include road, rail, ship and air containers.

For example, if secondary packaging units are placed into larger cardboard boxes that are sealed with parcel tape and put onto wooden pallets to be transported, the transit packaging is ‘cardboard box’, ‘parcel tape’ and ‘wooden pallet’.

Household and non-household packaging waste

You must submit the weight of packaging that ends up (or is likely to end up) as household and non-household waste.

When calculating your waste management fees for the financial year 2024 to 2025, the scheme administrator will treat all primary and shipment packaging as household waste, unless you have clear evidence that some or all of the packaging is unlikely to become household waste.

Get help

If you have any questions, contact the packaging team.

Published 7 June 2022