Packaging Compliance Services

If your business has a turnover more than £2million a year and handles more than 50 tonnes of packaging a year, then you are likely to be an obligated packaging producer under EU packaging regulations. However, there are also certain business activities that are taken into consideration when ascertaining if you are obligated.

Business activities which obligate you to follow the EU packaging regulations:

• Packaging goods anywhere in the supply chain.
• Importing new and second-hand goods directly into the UK.

Business activities which do not obligate you to follow the EU packaging regulations:
Wrapping or packaging goods to send to another part of your business (the same legal entity)

• Re-using packaging from goods you acquired as the end user
• You are the end user of a packaged good.

Under packaging waste regulations, an obligated producer has two options: either register with a Producer Compliance Scheme (PCS), or register with the Environment Agency. A packaging waste compliance scheme, like Recycling Lives Compliance Services, assumes the packaging producer’s legal liabilities and carries out their recovery and recycling obligations.

If a producer chooses to register with the Environment Agency they must ensure compliance with the packaging regulations themselves. This means they are obligated to assess and provide evidence for the quantity of packaging handled, reused and recycled, as well as pay the Environment Agency for the cost of monitoring and analysing this data.

All obligated packaging producers are required to fund the cost of recycling and recovery of specific quantities of materials through the purchase of Packaging Recovery Notes (PRNs).

A Packaging Recovery Note (PRN) or Packaging Export Recovery Note (PERN) is the most common form of evidence of recycling and/or recovery. It was developed by the Environment Agency to provide a paper trail for UK businesses obligated under the EU packaging directive.

A waste processor and exporter which has been approved and accredited by the Environment Agency, such as Recycling Lives, generates and issues PRNs and PERNs as proof that a certain tonnage of recycling has been performed.

The cost of a PRN or PERN is not fixed and can rise or fall dependant on the perceived supply and demand of the material being recycled.

No. Packaging legislation is specifically aimed at recycling and re-using packaging that has been handled by a business. This means that even if you recycle materials that could be used for the manufacture of packaging, this action cannot be used to meet the requirements of packaging waste regulations.

In all cases, recycling is just one part of your obligations as a packaging provider under this law. You still have to register with a packaging compliance scheme or the Environmental Agency and supply evidence of re-using or recycling packaging through the purchase of PRNs and PERNs.

A packaging producer is responsible for all packaging that it oversees or manages within the UK. This means if your business imports packaging materials into the UK then you still have an obligation to ensure this packaging is re-used or recycled when it becomes waste.

However, if your company exports goods outside the UK, you have no obligation to re-use or recycle it when it becomes waste because it will be discarded outside of the UK. Nonetheless, you are still obligated to declare the exportation of this packaging.

It is a criminal offence not to fulfil your obligations under the EU packaging and packaging waste directive. Failure to register with the Environmental Agency or a packaging compliance scheme could result in court proceedings and significant fines. The highest fines to date have exceeded £250,000.