The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations were introduced in 1997, with the aim of reducing the amount of packaging waste ending up in landfill.
These regulations work on the principle of shared producer responsibility whereby all obligated organisations have to take responsibility for their impact on the environment. The packaging supply chain is divided up into four activities, and a different percentage of the responsibility is allocated to each different activity.
Does your business produce or handle packaging in the UK, or directly import packaging into the UK? If so, you can find out if your company is affected by the UK Packaging Waste Regulations by working through the following questions:
Please note that your organisation can be obligated if it is part of a group that collectively exceeds the thresholds outlined above, even if it doesn't meet the thresholds on its own.
Northern Ireland has its own Packaging Waste Regulations which mirror the Great Britain regulations. However, organisations with operations in Northern Ireland must register these separately from those performed in the rest of the UK. For more information please visit the What you Need to Do - Northern Ireland page.
The Packaging Waste Regulations require packaging 'sellers', organisations that supply packaging to end-users / people or organisations that discard of the packaging, to provide recycling information to consumers. This requirement is otherwise known as the Consumer Information Obligation (CIO). Find out more about what is required of packaging 'sellers'.
If you are obligated under the Packaging Waste Regulations you might also be affected by other producer responsibility legislation. Find out more about the WEEE Regulations and the Waste Batteries Regulations.
If you think that your organisation may be obligated under the Packaging Waste Regulations, request to join our Packaging Producer Compliance Scheme via our online form.