Packaging – who is responsible?

Merchandise companies may need to take greater heed of packaging under Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for Packaging regulations

Under EPR, ‘packaging’ is any material that is used to cover or protect goods that are sold to consumers, and may also be designed to display a company’s logo or branding. It includes goods that are designed to be filled at the point of sale, for example, a reusable water bottle.

Does your business need to take action?

You will need to take action if all of the following apply:

• you’re an individual business, subsidiary or group
• you have an annual turnover of £1 million+
• you were responsible for more than 25 tonnes of packaging in 2022
• you carry out any of the 6 ‘packaging activities’ listed below

Packaging Activities:

1. You are supplying packaged goods to the UK market under your own brand, which includes a name, trademark, or any distinguishing marks.
   Regardless of whether you are a manufacturer, importer or distributor – the company in the supply chain that puts its branding on the packaging may need to take action.

Therefore, businesses hiring another company to do any of the following may still need to act:

• producing goods that will be sold under your brand name
• packing goods that will be sold under your brand name
• placing your branded goods on the UK market

2. You place goods into packaging that is unbranded when it is supplied, this includes both packaging for your own organisation or another organisation.
3. Your organisation imports products in packaging from outside of the UK, to be supplied on the UK market, even where the packaging is discarded before selling on the goods.

This does not apply when importing filled packaging that is:

• branded, and you’ve imported it on behalf of a brand owner that is established in the UK
• unbranded, and you go on to supply it to a ‘large’ organisation* that applies its brand before supplying it on.
  *a ‘large’ organisation has annual turnover of £2m+ and supplies or imports more than 50 tonnes of packaging

4. Your organisation owns an online marketplace that allows non-UK businesses to sell their goods into the UK.
5. Your organisation hires or loans out reusable packaging such as wooden pallets.
6. Your organisation manufactures or imports empty packaging, for supply to ‘small’ organisations with annual turnover between £1-2m, and you supply or import more than 25 tonnes of packaging into the UK.

If your business meets EPR requirements, what do you need to do?

This will depend upon whether you are classified as a small or large organisation.

You’re classed as a small organisation if either of the following apply:

• annual turnover is between £1-2m and you’re responsible for supplying or importing more than 25 tonnes of empty packaging or packaged goods in the UK
• your annual turnover is over £1m and you’re responsible for supplying or importing 25-50 tonnes of empty packaging or packaged goods in the UK

Small organisations must:

• record data about the empty packaging and packaged goods you supply or import from either 1 January 2023 or 1 March 2023 – find out what period you must report on here. You do not have to report your data until April 2025.
• create an account for your organisation from January 2024
• pay a fee to the environmental regulator from 2025

If you miss the deadline, you may need to pay a penalty.

You will be classed as a large organisation if both of the following apply:

• you have an annual turnover of £2m or more
• you’re responsible for supplying or importing more than 50 tonnes of empty packaging or packaged goods

If you’re a large organisation, to comply with the regulations, you may need to:

• record and report data about the empty packaging and packaged goods you supply or import in the UK (every 6 months) from either 1 January 2023 or 1 March 2023. Reporting dates are included in the government guidance listed below.
• create an account
• 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
• report data about empty packaging and packaged goods you supplied or imported

No enforcement action will be taken about late submission if your data is submitted by 31 May 2024. You may face penalties after this date.

You can find out the next steps your business needs to take at Extended producer responsibility for packaging: who is affected and what to do.

The DEFRA packaging team can also provide clarification at pEPR@defra.gov.uk.