According to the government's Official Statistics on UK waste, there was a 2.4% increase in the volume of UK packaging waste which was recycled between 2022 and 2023. The government is aiming to improve this statistic with the implementation of an Extended Producer Responsibility regime for packaging. This comes several years after the EU introduced a similar scheme, although changes are also afoot in the EU. In this article, we explore the developments and what they mean for businesses going forward.
UK producer responsibility
Under the existing Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2007 UK companies which meet certain thresholds are obliged to pay a proportion of the cost of recycling their packaging waste in accordance with national targets. The Regulations require producers to register with the appropriate Environment Agency (either directly or through a third-party compliance scheme), report their packaging data and demonstrate that they have paid to recover or recycle a specified tonnage of packaging waste to account for the new packaging they have placed on the UK market.
Recent developments
The government has been consulting on potential reforms to the UK's packaging waste regime and proposals to increase the responsibilities placed on packaging producers over the last several years. This has culminated in a new Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for packaging regime, which came into force in the UK at the start of this year. However, due to transitional provisions, the new regime set out in the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024 will not replace the 2007 producer responsibility obligations until 1 January 2026.
Under the EPR for packaging regime, the full cost of dealing with household packaging waste will be borne by packaging producers as opposed to taxpayers and local authorities. It is hoped that the new regime will encourage packaging producers to use less packaging or use packaging made from more easily recycled materials, for example through the introduction of modulated (adjusted) fees i.e. higher charges will apply for plastics and other harder-to-recycle materials.
A closer look at the UK's EPR for packaging regime
Under the new regime, the definition of "Producer" has been extended to include anyone that is established in the UK undertaking one of the following packaging activities:
- supplying goods into the UK market under their own brand
- placing goods into unbranded packaging
- importing products in packaging
- owning an online marketplace
- hiring or loaning out reusable packaging
- supplying empty packaging to other businesses.
The regime therefore covers businesses which manufacture and supply packaging as well as goods within packaging and extends to brand owners and importers of non-UK-based brands.
The specific obligations imposed depend on the size of the business and the volume of packaging it handles:
- Small producer: a business, subsidiary, or group which had a turnover of £1-£2million and supplied more than 25 tonnes of packaging to the UK market in the previous calendar year.
- Large producer: a business, subsidiary, or group which had a turnover of £2million and supplied more than 50 tonnes of empty packaging and packaged items to the UK market in the previous calendar year.
Small and large producers must keep records and report data on the packaging they place on the market. However, large producers must report data more frequently - every six months as opposed to annually. Producers might also have to submit nation data (information about which nation in the UK packaging is supplied and discarded in) subject to the packaging activity they carry out.
Large producers must pay a fair proportion of recovery and recycling costs. This is calculated as a percentage of the packaging waste they have reported. The existing system of demonstrating compliance through the acquisition of Packaging Waste Recycling Notes (PRNs) or Packaging Waste Export Recycling Note (PERNs) from accredited waste reprocessors and exporters will continue in its current form and will apply to all forms of packaging.
In addition, large producers will be required to pay pEPR fees to cover the net cost to local authorities of collecting and managing household packaging waste. They must also pay fees to the new EPR for packaging scheme administrator, PackUK, which was launched on 21 January 2025.
What's happening in the EU?
The EU's waste packaging framework was first laid out in the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive 94/62/EC (PPWD) which outlined measures to prevent the production of packaging waste and promote its reuse.
However, the European Commission found that the PPWD was not sufficient to prevent the growth of packaging waste and reduce the environmental impact of packaging in the EU market. In accordance with the EU’s Green Deal and Circular Economy Action Plan it is therefore being replaced by the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulations 2025/40 (PPWR) which entered into force on 11 February 2025 and will apply in Member States from 12 August 2026.
The PPWR will change how EU businesses design, consume, and dispose of packaging across all chains, for example it:
- introduces restrictions on what packaging can be used by banning certain packaging formats such as single-use plastics
- introduces mandatory labels on packaging, relating to (i) its material composition for easy waste separation; (ii) a deposit and return system; and (iii) the reusability of packaging (if applicable), with additional information about the reusability (e.g. about return points) to be made available via QR codes or other standardised, digital media
- promotes the use of reusable and refillable packaging by implementing EPR fees to be paid based on recyclability performance. The aim is to make all packaging placed on the EU market recyclable by 2030
- introduces national registers to monitor producers' compliance with EPR. In Germany, such a register already exists in the form of the LUCID Packaging Register.
The PPWR applies to all types of packaging, regardless of the material used and whether the packaging waste originates from industry, other manufacturing, retail or distribution, offices, services or households. The PPWR also applies to all economic operators who make packaging available on the market. This includes manufacturers, suppliers of packaging, importers, distributors, authorised representatives, final distributors and fulfilment service providers.
Separately, an amendment to the EU Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC is currently making its way through the EU's legislative process, which will introduce an EPR regime for textiles including clothing, blankets, bed linen, curtains, hats, footwear mattresses and carpets, as well as products that contain textile-related materials such as leather, rubber, or plastic. It is proposed that Member States will have 18 months after the Directive comes into force to set up EPR for textiles schemes. These will see fashion brands and textile producers having to pay fees to finance the collection and processing of textile waste. It remains to be seen whether the UK will implement similar measures in respect of textiles in future.
A more environmentally friendly market
There is a clear focus in both the UK and EU on reducing unnecessary waste by implementing legislative provisions which place more of an onus on businesses to account for their packaging waste and ensure greater quantities of recyclable waste are reprocessed into new resources and thus contribute to a more circular economy.
