Packaging Compliance

We are the UK’s largest, most established environmental compliance
scheme, managing compliance for more than 3,000 businesses

Packaging compliance is where businesses, that meet criteria set by the Packaging Waste Regulations, have taken steps to comply with the requirements of this piece of legislation.

Who needs to comply?

Not all businesses are affected by the Packaging Waste Regulations. A business needs to meet a set of criteria in order to be obligated. However, due to the complex nature of these Regulations, misunderstandings can occur, which may mean obligated businesses don’t realise they are required to comply, or may believe they don’t need to comply.

It is important that checks are made and expert advice is sought in order to establish what, if any, obligations a business may have, as non-compliance may result in hefty ﬁnes and/ or damage to business reputation.

Your business has a packaging obligation if ALL of the following points apply:



Its annual UK turnover exceeds £2 million, AND


It performs a packaging activity on any of the packaging handled, AND


It owns the packaging or packaging materials handled, AND


It handles more than 50 tonnes of packaging and/or packaging materials

Are you obligated under
the Packaging Waste
Regulations?

Take Test

A list of common misunderstandings can be found in our Blog: "Unpacking the myths of the Packaging Waste Regulations".

What is a compliance scheme?

In 1997, when the Packaging Waste Regulations first came into force, a group of obligated businesses collaborated to create the UK’s first ever packaging compliance scheme (Valpak) as a means to outsource legal compliance to a third party.

Businesses that choose to become members of a compliance scheme can outsource a number of activities. We will:

take on a business's legal responsibility for packaging compliance
calculate packaging obligations
purchase recycling evidence (Packaging Waste Recovery Notes) on behalf of a business to offset its obligation
register a business with the appropriate environment agency

Compliance schemes help to alleviate the burden of what can be a complex and onerous task, as well as take on a business’s legal responsibility.

If your business is obligated and you are looking to outsource compliance to a scheme, our Blog contains a list questions to ask yourself and the scheme you are looking to join, which should help with the decision-making process.

How much will compliance cost?

Your business will need to pay three sets of fees in order to become compliant with the Regulations:

Agency fees - Every business has to pay a set environment agency registration fee each year
Annual membership fee - This covers our administration costs of checking and verifying data
PRN fees - The cost of procuring recycling evidence notes needed to meet the business’s obligation

Outsource solutions

Gathering and submitting packaging data can be a demanding and time consuming process. Businesses have the option to fully outsource data collection and submission to our Data Insight Team.

We can offer support and help collecting packaging weights information, or the entire data submission process can be outsourced to us. Our service can be tailored to suit your business's needs.

Visit our Data Insights web page for further information, or contact us today for a free quote or to discuss your business’s requirements.

Why Valpak?

We were the first ever packaging compliance scheme and have over 20 years’ experience, which, alongside our 100% compliance success rate, makes us best placed to look after your business’s packaging compliance.

Our extensive experience and expertise enables us to offer our members a wealth of benefits, including:

access to fully trained experts who can be contacted for help and advice
UK Green Dot licence fee waived
provision of a certificate of compliance
registering the business with the appropriate environment agency
representation at Government level
regulatory changes and consultations updates
access to a unique, online data submission system, which offers interactive guidance
free regional training workshops
free compliance reviews
industry news e-bulletins
access to a dedicated Members' Area of the website
Consumer Information Obligations (CIOs) met via recycle-more.co.uk

If you are interested in joining our scheme, or simply wish to talk through your requirements with one of our experts, please do not hesitate to contact us via our enquiry form, email us or call 03450 682 572.