About Packaging compliance
The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997 and 2007 affect all businesses that handle more than 50 tonnes of packaging per year and have a turnover in excess of £2 million.
These Obligated Producers must calculate the amount of each type of packaging they handled, pay an annual registration fee to the Environment Agency and purchase “recycling evidence” in proportion to the amount of packaging they handle
Key terms and information
Please see the explanations of some of the key terms and phrases associated with Packaging compliance below.
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- Packaging Waste Regulations
- The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997 and 2007 affect all businesses that handle more than 50 tonnes of packaging per year and have a turnover in excess of £2 million.
- Packaging Recovery Notes
- Firms have to "prove" that they have recovered and recycled packaging by aquiring "evidence". The only tradeable form of evidence accepted by the Environment Agency (EA) is the PRN or PERN. This is a certificate issued by an "accredited reprocessor or exporter" in relation to a specified tonnage of packaging which they have recovered or recycled.
- Packaging
- Packaging is defined as “…products made of any materials of any nature to be used for the containment, protection, handling, delivery, and presentation of goods…”. Recovery and recycling obligations are based upon the tonnages of plastic, cardboard, paper, steel, aluminium, glass and timber packaging handled during the preceding year.
- Recovery
- Recovery is defined as “.. the use of combustible packaging waste as a means to generate energy through direct incineration with or without other waste but with recovery of the heat”. This encompasses most commercial waste to energy plants.
- Recycling
- Recycling is defined as “… the reprocessing in a production process of the waste materials for the original purpose or for other purposes, including organic recycling but excluding energy recovery”.