Recycling and waste

Packaging & Packaging Waste - Regulations

The Producer Responsibility Obligations Regulations and the Essential Requirements Regulations implement EC Directive 94/62/EC on Packaging and Packaging Waste. Together these regulations have led to decreases in the amount of packaging used around products.

The Producer Responsibility Obligations

The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2008 (as amended) ("the packaging Regulations") are intended to encourage the minimisation of packaging and packaging waste, incentivise re-use and increase the recovery and recycling of packaging waste.

The packaging regulations place an obligation on certain businesses who satisfy two threshold tests to recover and recycle specified tonnages of packaging waste each year. The amount each business has to recover is determined by three factors:

  • the amount of packaging the business handles;
  • the business recovery and recycling targets for the year;
  • the activity the business carries out on packaging.

Organisations are obligated under the producer responsibility regulations if they meet both of the following two threshold tests  1). They handle more than 50 tonnes of packaging a year and 2). They have a turnover in excess of £2 million per annum

On 14 March 2008 the new Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations (Amendment) 2008 came into force. The 2008 Packaging Regulations update the 2007 regulations with new business targets for 2008-10.

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The Essential Requirements

The Department for Business, Enterprise and  Regulatory Reform (BERR)  manage the Packaging (Essential Requirements) Regulations: these regulations place a duty on producers of packaging to ensure that the packaging used around products is kept to the minimum amount necessary without breaching required levels for safety and hygiene and consumer acceptance.

See also

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Page last modified: 19 May 2008
Page published: 5 February 2003

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs