Packaging & Packaging Waste - compliance and reporting
Compliance and reporting requirements are managed by the Environment Agency. Below is an overview of these requirements.
Compliance schemes and demonstrating compliance
Businesses have a choice of how to comply with the regulations. They can either follow the individual route and satisfy their own obligations through registering with the environment agency and purchasing evidence or they can join a registered compliance scheme who will take on and satisfy the companies obligations.
- Current compliance scheme details (The Environment Agency)
In order to demonstrate that the required amount of recovery and recycling has been carried out, the producer (or a compliance scheme on their behalf) must purchase evidence of compliance from an accredited reprocessor or exporter. These businesses will issue, respectively, Packaging Waste Recovery Notes (PRNs) and Packaging Waste Export Recovery Notes (PERNs). These are the only legal forms of demonstrating compliance.
In order to issue PRNs and PERNs, reprocessors and exporters must be accredited by the relevant Agency (Environment Agency for England and Wales; Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) in Scotland, and the Environment and Heritage Service (EHS) in Northern Ireland. In order to accredit a business the relevant Agency will scrutinise the business and, if satisfied, the Agency will accredit it. The Regulations also set out a number of conditions of accreditation which reprocessors and exporters must adhere to. This includes demonstrating a business plan to the relevant Agency.
Consultation on revising the requirements regarding evidence of broad equivalence for export reprocessing sites
A six week consultation seeking opinions on the evidence currently required from exporters to prove the broadly equivalent status of reprocessing sites outside the EU closed on the 29th April a summary of responses is available at the below link.
Reports into allegations of inappropriate issue of Packaging Waste Recovery Notes (PRNs) and Packaging Waste Export Recovery Notes (PERNs):
- Paper packaging waste (2006, PDF 200 KB)
- Plastic packaging waste (2004, PDF 50 KB)
- Wood packaging waste(2003, PDF 50 KB)
Operational plans
Operational plans set out how each scheme or producer intends to meet their recycling and recovery obligations and are a critical element in the ensuring the UK meets its targets for packaging waste recovery. Producers who have an obligation of more than 500 tonnes, are required to submit an operational plan. The deadline for providing an operational plan is the 31 January of each year. A copy of the operational plan must be sent to both Defra and the Environment Agency
- Operational plans 2007 overview of results for packaging waste May 2007 (PDF 150 KB)
- Environment Agency Guidance on Operational Plans (Environment Agency website)
See also
- Your waste responsibilities - complying with the legislation (Businesslink)
- Packaging waste - Producer Responsibility Obligations (Netregs)
- National Packaging Waste Database (Environment Agency)
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Page last modified: 16 July 2008
Page published: 5 February 2003