You probably already know this, but if your organisation is responsible for packaging, your recycling responsibilities are changing on 1st January 2023. If you’re producing over 25 tonnes of packaging per calendar year, supplying or handling it and turning over £1m+ annually, or actually packaging products, you need to know the new rules.

Some of the Extended Producer Responsibility rules are complicated, especially where there’s a chain of custody involved or you’re producing packaged products under your own brand. Even the government’s own guidance page says ‘you may need to take action’ in many of the examples they give, and the rules and timescales also change depending on the size of your organisation.

What do the new rules mean practically?

For all those who are affected, the coming new responsibilities break down as:

• The collection and submission of data on the packaging you handle and/or supply.
• Payment of a waste management fee.
• The purchase of waste recycling notes (PRNs) or packaging waste export recycling notes (PERNs).
• The submission of information on where your packaging has been sold, hired, loaned, gifted or discarded.

Exactly what you need to do depends on whether you’re classified as a ‘small’ or ‘large’ organisation. You can see the full list of responsibilities, and how you’re categorised, on the government site. The earliest possible date by which you’ll need to be providing the data, regardless of how you’ve been categorised, is July 2023, so you’ve got some time to get your house in order. Be warned, though; late or non-submission of data will cost you, with penalty charges in force for non-compliance.

Get ahead of the game; be ready

The best way to avoid those penalties is to be prepared ahead of time. So start gathering data now on the weight of:

• Individual materials in the packaging you handle and/or supply.
• The materials used in your ‘primary’, ‘secondary’, ‘shipment’ and ‘transit’ packaging.
• Packaging that’s likely to become household or non-household waste.
• Packaging likely to end up in street bins.

The government site defines exactly what these material definitions mean. Your data from 2023 will be used to calculate your obligations for 2024 and 2025, and bear in mind that if your organisation is a parent company, each subsidiary must submit separate data.

What are you recording?

To the nearest tonne (1,000 kg), you must report handling of aluminium, fibre-based composite, glass, paper and cardboard, plastic, steel, wood and other materials. The ‘other’ category covers pretty much anything else not listed, including but not limited to biodegradable plastics, cork, cotton, flax-based products, nitrites, rubber and silicone.

This must all be reported both by weight and how much of each is used in the primary, secondary, shipment or transit categories:

• Primary; the containers in which the goods to be sold are stored – tins, cardboard packaging, blister packs etc.
• Secondary: the materials used to group and/or display the primary packaging – cardboard trays, temporary shelving for POS display etc.
• Shipment: the outer packaging of whatever is being shipped, such as the addressed, waterproof plastic bag around a product’s cardboard box.
• Transit: the materials used to support or protect the secondary packaging units, such as wooden pallets and parcel tape.

Help will be available

If this sounds complicated, the fact that registered compliance schemes are being set up to help companies comply with EPR regulations probably tells its own story. These schemes will be able to pay your registration fees, buy PRNs and PERNs on your behalf, and submit your data. But they will not be able to pay your waste management fees for you.

The fees, which have not yet been published, will be lower the easier your chosen materials are to recycle. The government has promised this information ‘as soon as they can’. In the meantime, get the full story from their guidance page, or email pEPR@defra.gov.uk if you have any specific questions.