Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2007
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The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2007,[1] which originally came into effect at the end of August 1997[2] in Great Britain and in 1999 in Northern Ireland,[3] was the first producer responsibility legislation in the UK.
The Packaging Waste Regulations work on the principle of Collective Producer Responsibility, obliging producers of packaging to take responsibility for their environmental impact. The regulations require obligated producers to pay a proportion of the cost of the recovery and recycling of their packaging.
Companies must show that they have paid for their obligation for recovery and recycling of the packaging. This is achieved through the Packaging Recovery Note (PRN) System.
Under the Packaging Waste Regulations the so-called 'packaging chain' is divided into four activities, each with a different percentage responsibility:[4]
- raw material manufacturer: 6% - manufacturing of packaging raw material, e.g. manufacturer of steel for baked beans cans.
- converter: 9% - manufacturing of a recognised packaging item, e.g. manufacturer of the steel can for the baked beans.
- packer/filler: 37% - putting a product into packaging or applying packaging to a product, e.g. the company which fills the can with baked beans.
- seller: 48% - supplying the packaging to the end user of that packaging, e.g. the supermarket which sells the baked bean can to the consumer, or the wholesaler who sells boxed cans of beans would have the selling obligation on the boxes removed by the supermarket.
Companies who directly import packaging, packaged goods or packaging materials are similarly obligated. The level of their obligation depends on the stage of the chain at which the packaging is brought into the UK but, in every case, they pick up the rolled-up obligations for all stages carried out before the packaging or packaging materials reach the UK.