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Packaging waste 2025

• What are the regulations that apply to packaging waste?
• Do the regulations apply to me?
• What do I do next?
• Recovering and recycling packaging waste
• Penalties
• Contact us

What are the regulations that apply to packaging waste?

There are two sets of UK-wide packaging waste regulations which extend the principle of ‘the polluter pays’ to ensure that businesses who produce packaging waste take responsibility for it at the end of its life:

1. The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024 updates the previous regulations from 2007. The new regulations are intended to incentivise producers to use less packaging and to switch to using packaging which is easily recycled.
2. The Packaging (Essential Requirements) Regulations 1998 require that packaging should be minimised, that it should be capable of recovery and recycling and that it contain restricted amounts of certain hazardous substances.

The Producer Responsibility Obligations separate packaging waste into two categories:

1. Household packaging waste – Generated from residential homes and typically collected by local authorities.
2. Non-household packaging waste – Produced by businesses, industries, and other non-residential entities and often managed by private waste management companies.

Both household and non-household packaging recycling obligations will use a simplified version of the Packaging Recycling Notes (PRN) and Packaging Export Recycling Notes (PERN) system.

• PRNs/PERNs must be purchased by packaging producers from accredited Reprocessors or Exporters to offset their recycling costs.
• The definition of a producer has been narrowed to place the financial obligation on a single point in the supply chain.
• A producer is now defined as a business that carries out the following activities:
  • supply packaged goods to the UK market under your own brand
  • place goods into packaging
  • import products in packaging
  • own an online marketplace
  • hire or loan out reusable packaging
  • supply empty packaging

Additionally, the financial obligations for dealing with household packaging waste will be calculated and producers must pay a waste management fee to a Scheme Administrator. These fees will then be passed on to Local Authorities to cover the costs of managing the collection and sorting of this packaging waste.

In future, the waste management fee will also vary depending on how easily the packaging can be recycled. Your fee will be lower if you use packaging that is easier to recycle.

Do the regulations apply to me?

These regulations place financial and reporting obligations on all companies that place packaging material on the UK market and have an annual turnover exceeding £2 million and that handle more than 50 tonnes of packaging per annum.

Additionally, companies who have an annual turnover of over £1 million but do not exceed £2 million and who handle more than 25 tonnes of packaging per year must record and report their data.

If you are a Producer to help determine if the regulations apply to you, check the Extended producer responsibility for packaging: who is affected and what to do.

What do I do next?

If the regulations apply to you, you will need to register on the Report Packaging Data digital system.

Once registered you will then need to report on the amount and type of packaging that you have placed on the UK market. either directly or via a compliance scheme.

On the Report Packaging Data system, you will be able to:

• tell us your organisation details
• report packaging data
• tell us if you’re working with a compliance scheme

If you are a Reprocessor or Exporter in Scotland you are required to register with SEPA and you can opt to apply for accreditation on the National Packaging Waste Database (NPWD) if you wish to be involved in issuing PRNs and PERNs . All registered companies and compliance schemes must submit data on packaging placed onto the UK market. Once all obligated producers and their compliance schemes have submitted packaging data, you will have a recycling target calculated which will prescribe the amount of packaging waste that you need to recycle.

Recovering and recycling packaging waste

Most packaging producers are not able to physically reuse or recycle their own packaging waste and instead use Reprocessor and Exporter companies to recover and recycle waste packaging or export waste packaging.

In order to comply with regulations, companies using Reprocessor and Exporters must produce approved evidence of compliance, in the form of electronic Packaging Waste Recovery Notes (PRNs) and electronic Packaging Waste Export Recovery Notes (PERNs). These can only be obtained from accredited companies. A public register of accredited Reprocessors and Exporters is available to help you locate an operator.

Penalties

If you fail to meet your legal obligations, or provide false or misleading information, you may face prosecution under criminal law and/or civil penalties. These include:

• fixed penalty fines for minor offences
• higher fines for more serious offences
• an enforcement undertaking: an offer, formally accepted by SEPA, that redresses the impact of your non-compliance

Contact us

For more help, advice or information on any aspect of packaging waste regulations, please email Producer.Responsibility@sepa.org.uk.