Packaging legislation is any legal requirement or regulation that involves packaging materials. There are four key pieces you need to know about in the UK: Packaging Waste Regulations, Extended Producer Responsibilities, the UK Plastic Packaging Tax, and the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive.



Packaging Waste Regulations

If your business produces or uses packaging, or sells packaged goods, you may be classed as an ‘obligated packaging producer’. You’re an obligated packaging producer if you’ve handled 50 tonnes of packaging materials or packaging in the previous calendar year, and have a turnover of more than £2 million a year (based on the last financial year’s accounts).


If so, you must follow rules which help to reduce the amount of packaging produced, reduce how much packaging waste goes to landfill, and increase the amount of packaging waste that is recycled.


The government defines packaging as any material used to hold, protect, handle, deliver and present goods. This includes packaging for raw materials right through to finished goods to be sold or are being sold - for example pallets, boxes, bags, tape for wrapping, rolls, tubes, and clothes hangers sold as part of a clothing item.


You must register as a packaging producer every year by 7th April, meet your recycling obligation, obtain evidence of compliance, and submit a certificate of compliance (CoC) by 31st January the following year. To find out more, visit: Packaging waste: producer responsibilities

 

Extended Producer Responsibilities

The government also recently introduced new regulations which gives businesses more responsibility for dealing with their packaging waste. This is called extended producer responsibility (EPR) for packaging.

 

Under EPR proposals, if you’re a packaging producer you’ll be responsible for the entire cost of recycling the packaging you place on the market, including the cost of collection, treatment, and recycling.

The regulations apply to all UK businesses that import or supply packaging. You’ll need to collect and report packaging data if:

  • You're an individual business, subsidiary or group (but not a charity)
  • You have an annual turnover of £1 million or more (based on your most recent annual accounts)
  • You were responsible for more than 25 tonnes of packaging in 2022
  • You carry out any of the ‘packaging activities’, as defined by the government

 

What you need to do depends on whether you’re classed as a small or large organisation. You’re a large organisation if you have an annual turnover of £2 million or more, and you’re responsible for supplying or importing more than 50 tonnes of empty packaging or packaged goods in the UK.

 

To comply with the regulations as a large organisation, you may need to:

  • Record data about your empty packaging and packaged goods you supply or import in the UK
  • Create an account for your organisation
  • Pay a waste management fee
  • Pay scheme administrator costs
  • Pay a charge to the environmental regulator
  • Get PRNs or PERNs to meet your recycling obligations

 

Your waste management fee will initially be calculated based on packaging you’ve reported as ‘household packaging’. A PRN (packaging waste recycling note) or PERN (packaging waste export recycling note) is evidence that packaging waste has been recycled. To find out more, visit: Extended producer responsibility for packaging: who is affected and what to do

 

UK Plastic Packaging Tax

You’ll need to pay the Plastic Packaging Tax if you’ve manufactured, or imported into the UK, plastic packaging components that contain less than 30% recycled plastic. Plastic packaging is packaging that is predominantly plastic by weight.

The tax came into force on 1st April 2022 at a rate of £200 per tonne, rising to £210.82 per tonne from 1st April 2023 and £217.85 per tonne from 1st April 2024. To find out more, visit: Plastic Packaging Tax: steps to take

 

EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive

The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) introduces more detailed reporting requirements on a business’ impact on the environment, human rights and social standards, based on common criteria in line with the EU’s climate goals.

 

A broader set of large companies, as well as listed SMEs, will now be required to report on sustainability. Even if your company isn’t based in the EU, you’ll still have to report if you generate over €150 million on the EU market. Listed SMEs will also be covered, but will have more time to adapt to the new rules.

 

The CSRD came into force on 5th January 2023 and the first companies will have to apply the new rules for the first time in the 2024 financial year, for reports published in 2025.

 

These rules, affecting nearly 50,000 companies, aim to give investors and other stakeholders access to information so they can assess a business’ impact on people and the environment, and for investors to assess financial risks and opportunities arising from climate change and other sustainability issues. To find out more, visit: Sustainable economy: Parliament adopts new reporting rules for multinationals and Corporate sustainability reporting