Overview of the regulations

The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations were introduced in 1997 to enable the UK to comply with an EC Directive on packaging and packaging waste. The packaging regulations impose obligations on businesses in the packaging chain to supply data on the packaging they handle and to recover and recycle packaging waste.

The regulations affect more than 6,000 companies in the UK who manufacture, use, sell or import packaging or packaged goods. Not all companies in the UK are obligated – only those with a turnover of more than £2m who also handle in excess of 50 tonnes of packaging per annum. To find out if you are obligated, use the interactive self-assessment kit on this web site, or contact Complypak for advice.

What do obligated businesses have to do?

    1. Register with the relevant environment agency by the 7th April each year and supply data on the packaging handled in the previous year
    2. calculate your recovery and recycling obligations
    3. Obtain evidence or recovery and recycling of packaging waste up to a calculated tonnage based on the packaging you handled
    4. Certify before 31st January the following year that you have complied with the recovery and recycling obligations.

Alternatively, businesses can join an approved compliance scheme such as Complypak, in which case they are exempt and the obligations pass to the scheme. Compliance scheme members will have to supply packaging data to their scheme.

 

Brief guide to the regulations