How to understand the complex framework of UK EPR

A new beginning for packaging:

The new Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulations (pEPR) entered into force on the 1st of January 2025 and have officially replaced its predecessor, the ‘Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2007’. With the transition to the new pEPR, there are new requirements that obligated producers must ensure they adhere to. The new pEPR places requirements on both small and large producers but how can we distinguish between the two?

Small producers are considered as producers where their turnover is more than £1 million in the last fiscal year, and they exceed a threshold of more than 25 tonnes of packaging on the UK market. On the other hand, large producers of packaging are obligated under EPR for packaging if they are a company that has an annual turnover of £2 million and exceed an annual threshold of more than 50 tonnes of packaging. Although we understand small and large producers, what is considered ‘packaging’?

What is packaging under these new Regulations?

The newly enacted pEPR defines packaging as all products made of any materials of any nature to be used for the containment, protection, handling, delivery or presentation of goods, from raw materials to processed goods, from the producer to the user or consumer, including non-returnable items used for those purposes.” However, this is only where packaging can be classified as either:

1. Primary Packaging.
2. Secondary Packaging.
3. Tertiary Packaging.
4. Shipment Packaging.

Within the separation of primary, secondary, tertiary and shipment packaging there is the further breakdown of household and non-household packaging that bears varying compliance requirements. Expanding on existing definitions, packaging under the pEPR is then split further into material categories such, including Aluminium, Glass, Plastic, Paper, or board and more.

Am I a producer of packaging?

Under the ‘Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024’, a person or company can be classed as a ‘producer’ if the person is firstly, established in the United Kingdom, or undertakes one of the following activities:

• A brand owner (a person whose branding appears on a product or packaging).
• A packer/filler. (a person that has placed the goods into the packaging).
• An importer or first UK owner (a person who is responsible for importing the packaging or where the importer is not established within the UK, the first UK owner who is the person who is established in the UK who takes ownership of that packaging in the UK).
• A distributor (this is the person who manufacturers or imports unfilled packaging and supplies that packaging to another person).
• An online marketplace operator (this is a person who controls access to the online marketplace).
• A service provider (this is a person who supplies reusable packaging to a user of that packaging).
• A seller (this is a person who is not a service provider, and supplies filled packaging to a final user

Obligated under EPR for my packaging, what comes next?

When a company becomes obligated there are certain steps that they will need to undertake to be compliant under UK EPR. The key steps include the need to register with the relevant Agency, keep records, report to the Agency on their packaging, pay fees for company registration, scheme administrator costs, adhere to the illustrative base fees, comply with the pERN requirements and in the case of large producers comply with the recycling obligations.

1. Registration
   When a company is required to register with the relevant authority, they must submit identifying and brand owner information to the authority. When a company is required to register, they must pay a registration fee when they register their organisation with the relevant Agency.
2. Payment of various fees under EPR
   Once a company has registered and paid their registration fee to the relevant Agency, the company must also pay Scheme Administrator (SA) fees. The scheme administrator fees are required to cover the costs of the administration efforts of the EPR schemes. Companies obligated under EPR must also pay pERN fees. As part of EPR, companies must pay fees for household packaging for various packaging materials.
3. Reporting
   Obligations for reporting depends on whether a company is considered either a ‘small’ producer or a ‘large’ producer, including the type of information that is reported.

Large producers:

Large Producers must report their packaging data bi-annually. Companies that must submit their packaging data must submit this by the next reporting deadline: the 1st of April 2025 (this is for data collected between July to December 2024). The October deadline is on or before the 1st of October each year, for the period from the 1st of January to the 30th of June in that year.
 

Small producers:

Small producers must report on an annual basis; the deadline for small producers submitting their packaging data is the 1st of April 2025. 
 

Complying with recycling obligations:

As part of the new regulations on packaging, once a large producer has registered with the relevant agency and submitted their packaging data, they must then adhere to the recycling obligations. This requires funding an equivalent amount of recycling through the financial acquisition of packaging recycling notes; otherwise known as pERN’s. Producers should provide these pERN’s as evidence of compliance when meeting their EPR obligations. 
 

Household fees:

In December 2024, the UK Government provided the third instalment of the illustrative base fees for household packaging only. These fees apply to the following materials:

• Aluminium
• Fibre-based composite
• Glass
• Paper or board
• Plastic
• Steel
• Wood
• Other

What comes next?

As this is the first blog in a miniseries on UK EPR, our next blog will focus on the United Kingdom Extended Producer Responsibility Nation of Sale reporting.
The rapid rate at which EPR regulations are evolving can be frustrating for businesses that seek to make sense of how they might be affected by a potential law. Ecoveritas has and will continue to keep track of and interpret EPR regulations, along with other environmental law impacting packaging, textiles, electricals, batteries, and wider sectors. Our exclusive Global EPR Matrix offers a unique insight into EPR laws that should educate you about your business’s obligations.