Packaging waste: prepare for extended producer responsibility

Selling empty packaging

You may need to take action if you make and then sell empty packaging to businesses that fall under the regulationshigher threshold for EPR for packaging.

This includes organisations that:

• have an annual turnover of less than £2 million a year

• handle or supply less than 50 tonnes of packaging a year

Packaging definition

Packaging is any material that is used to cover or protect goods that are sold to consumers. It makes handling and delivering goods easier and safer. It includes anything that’s designed to be filled at the point of sale, such as a coffee cup.

Packaging also makes goods look appealing and it may display a company’s logo or brand. ‘Goods’ could include raw materials or processed items.

What you may 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

Thesubmit stepsinformation youabout mustwhere takeyour topackaging complyhas withbeen thesold, regulationshired, willloaned, dependgifted onor whetherdiscarded – this is called ‘nation data’

What you areneed to do depends on whether you’re classed as a ‘small’ or ‘large’ organisation. This is based on:

• your annual turnover

• how much packaging you handle and supply each year

If

Check youif sellyou’re packageda goodslarge 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 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).

If you’re a small organisation

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

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

If you’re a large organisation

You willmay bealso classedneed asto asubmit largenation organisation if both of the following apply:data.

• you

  If 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 calendarlarge year (January to December).

organisation

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.

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

  an administrative fee

• a waste management fee

You may also need to submit nation data.

PRNs and PERNs

A PRN (packaging waste recovery note) or PERN (packaging waste export recovery note) is a certificate proving that packaging waste has been recycled properly.

You can buy PRNs and PERNs from accredited re-processors. Re-processors are responsible for recycling packaging waste.

By buying PRNs and PERNs you work towards meeting your recycling target.

If you’re a parent company, group or subsidiary

IfFor youparent companies and their subsidiaries, there are adifferent parentways companyyou thatcan iscomply responsiblewith EPR for packaging. You can register:

• as a whole group of(in subsidiaries,this youinstance, canthe eitherparent registergroup complies with EPR for packaging on behalf of every subsidiary within the group)

• as individual subsidiaries (in this instance, the subsidiaries that meet the turnover and tonnage requirements comply with EPR for packaging onlineindependently)

• as servicea (registrationparent openscompany infor Aprilpart 2023)of asthe angroup individual(this organisationis orwhere the parent company registers to comply with EPR for packaging on behalf of yoursome, group.but not all of its subsidiaries)

IfYou youshould register as ana individualparent organisation,company yourfor subsidiariespart canof registerthe individuallygroup if theysome of your subsidiaries don’t meet the turnover and tonnage requirements.requirements in their own right, but do meet the requirements when combined. In this instance, the parent company will comply with EPR for packaging on behalf of the combined subsidiaries.

WhoCheck mustif you need to submit nation data

Nation data is information about which country in the UK your packaging has been sold, hiredhired, loaned, gifted or loaneddiscarded in.

If your organisation needsmust toact takeunder actionEPR, toyou’ll complyneed withto the regulations, you must submit nation data if you’reyou responsiblealso fordo any of the following:

• selling

  sell any filled or empty packaging directly to consumers in the UK

• selling

  sell empty packaging to UK organisations that doare not needlegally toobligated complyunder with the regulations

• selling empty packaging directly to consumers in the UK
• hiring

  hire andor loaningloan out reusable packaging

• owning

  own an online marketplace thatwhere allows other organisations to sell their empty packaging and packaged goods to UK consumers

• importing

  import packaging to the UK that you discard without selling or exporting it

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’‘secondary’, ‘shipment’ 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.

FromIf 2025,you thehave schemeregistered administratorfor willEPR adjustfor yourpackaging wasteas managementa feesparent dependingcompany, onyou thewill costneed ofto recyclingsubmit thedata materialsfor usedeach inof the packagingsubsidiaries youwithin handleyour andgroup supply.separately, rather than as a combined group.

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‘Other’ includes any materials you use that aren’t listed here. For example, other materials could include:

• bio-degradable

  biodegradable plastics –(compostable compostable plastics made of plant-based productsproducts)

• 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’‘secondary’, ‘shipment’ or ‘transit’ packaging you handle and supply.

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’.

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.

Shipment packaging

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

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.

You only need to submit information about reusable packaging, such as pallets, the first time they are used.

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.

Packaging that is unlikely to become household waste is classed as non-household waste.

If any of your packaging is non-household waste, you’ll need to demonstrate that you supplied the packaging to a business that consumed and discarded it before the product was supplied to a customer.

If you are unable to demonstrate this, you should class this packaging as household waste. This may be because you supply packaging to a business through a third party (such as a distributor or wholesaler).

If you sell packaging to a customer that they go on to discard on business premises (such as a crisp packet), you should class this as household waste.

Street bin waste

You must submit data about the weight of packaging that is likely to end up in street bins.

For food, this includes packaging for:

• takeaway food, such as wraps, boxes, bags, paper

• confectionery that weighs less than 230g, such as chewing gum and chocolate

• crisps and other savoury snacks that weigh less than 60g

• single portions of ready-to-eat food that doesn’t need any preparation, such as sausage rolls, sushi, sandwiches, individual cakes and biscuits

For drinks, this includes packaging for:

• takeaway drinks, such as cups, cup holders, and straws

• cartons holding up to 850ml of drink that doesn’t need to be diluted

• pouches holding up to 600ml of drink that doesn’t need to be diluted

For tobacco products, this includes packaging for:

• cigarettes

• cigars

• tobacco

• e-cigarettes

Information about fees

As soon as we can, we will give you an indication of what your fees will be in 2024.

From 2025 the waste management fee will vary depending on the type of materials you have reported. Your fee will be lower if you use materials that are easier to recycle.

Getting help from a third party (compliance scheme)

Compliance schemes are third parties that help organisations meet the EPR for packaging requirements.

Compliance schemes can:

• pay your registration fees

• buy PRNs/PERNs to meet your recycling obligations

• submit your packaging data

A compliance scheme cannot pay your waste management fee.

If you choose to work with a compliance scheme, you should make sure they appear on the compliance scheme public register.

Get help

If you have any questions, contact the packaging team.