Extended producer responsibility for packaging: recycling obligations and waste disposal fees
UK organisations that are affected by extended producer responsibility (EPR) for packaging may need to get evidence of packaging waste recycling and pay disposal fees.
If you’re a UK organisation that supplies or imports packaging, you may be affected by extended producer responsibility (EPR) for packaging.
The way UK organisations responsible for packaging must carry out their recycling responsibilities is changing.
If you’re affected by EPR, you should collect the correct packaging data for 1 January to 31 December 2023.
A separate guide covers previous producer responsibility regulations – you may need to meet both sets of regulations depending on your situation.
If you’re affected by EPR, you, or a compliance scheme working on your behalf, must:
- create an account on the report packaging data service
- submit your organisation details
- submit your packaging data
- pay your registration fees to your environmental regulator
If you’re a large organisation, or a compliance scheme working on their behalf, you will also need to do the following to meet your producer obligations:
- review your ‘recycling obligations’ - these are calculated as a percentage of the packaging waste you’ve reported
- fund an equivalent amount of recycling by buying packaging recycling notes (PRNs) and packaging export recycling notes (PERNs) from waste reprocessors and exporters
- provide the PRNs and PERNs as evidence of you meeting your obligations
From October 2025, you will also need to pay waste disposal costs. A compliance scheme working on your behalf will not be able to do this for you.
Get evidence of your packaging waste recycling
Once you’ve registered on the RPD service, submitted your data, and paid your registration fees, you must review your recycling obligations. You will be able to see this when you log into your RPD account.
Accredited waste reprocessors and exporters who manage your packaging waste can issue PRNs and PERNs to you for the packaging waste they recycle. You can issue your own if you are accredited.
You must get evidence in the form of these PRNs and PERNs for the packaging waste recycling equivalent to the weight of your obligation from them.
For example, if you placed paper packaging on the market, you will need to get paper PRNs or PERNs equivalent to 83% of its total weight (rounded to the nearest tonne).
Only large organisations must obtain PRNs and PERNs for the packaging they place on the market.
If you recycle packaging waste your own business handled or supplied, you must still obtain a PRN or PERN from accredited reprocessors and exporters. For example, if you have supplied a specific amount of paper bags, you must obtain PRNs or PERNs showing recycling equivalent to your recycling obligation for that material.
Decide what year to use your evidence for
Once you have received the PRNs and PERNs you need, you will need to use, or ‘accept’, them toward meeting a year’s recycling obligations.
If waste is received at an accredited reprocessor or exporter in December of any year, you can choose to accept the PRN or PERN for either:
- the year the waste relates to
- next year’s obligations
PRNs and PERNs that relate to months that are not December can only be used toward the recycling obligations for their accreditation year.
For example, a PRN or PERN issued under 2025 accreditation for March can only be accepted toward meeting 2025 recycling obligations. However, you can choose to accept a PRN or PERN issued for waste received or exported by an accredited reprocessor or exporter in December 2025 for meeting 2025 or 2026 recycling obligations.
The deadline for meeting each year’s recycling obligations for the year ending 31 December is 31 January the following year.
For example, the deadline for acquiring PRNs or PERNs for recycling obligations relating to the 2024 year will be 31 January 2025.
Where to manage your PRNs and PERNs
The way you can access and choose what year to accept your PRNs and PERNs for is changing. The following timeline explains how to manage your PRNs and PERNs over the next few months.
December 2024
Use the National Packaging Waste Database (NPWD) to manage your 2024 recycling obligations as usual, including accepting PRNs and PERNs up to and including 31 January 2025.
If you have any December 2024 waste PRNs or PERNs that you do not want to use toward your 2024 recycling obligations, you should leave them in ‘awaiting acceptance’ on NPWD. In early February, those PRNs and PERNs will become available when you log in to your RPD account and you will be able to accept them toward your 2025 recycling obligations
If you log into your RPD account in December 2024, you will not be able to see any PRNs or PERNs from December 2024 that you’ve chosen to leave in ‘awaiting acceptance’ for use toward your 2025 recycling obligations .
January 2025
Use NPWD to manage your PRN and PERNs to meet 2024 recycling obligations up to and including 31 January 2025. You must leave any PRNs and PERNs from December 2024 waste that you want to count toward a 2025 recycling obligation as ‘awaiting acceptance’ on NPWD, so they can be passed to the RPD service and accepted there toward meeting your upcoming 2025 recycling obligation.
You will not be able to accept PRNs and PERNs toward your 2025 recycling obligations on NPWD. Leave them at ‘awaiting acceptance’.
If you log into your RPD account, you will see a new section called ‘managing recycling obligations’ but you will not see any PRNs or PERNs until February 2025.
NPWD will generate certificates of compliance (CoC) for directly registered organisations as usual. It will say whether your obligations for 2024 have been met. Your authorised person must check it is correct, then log in to NPWD to sign it off and submit it.
The deadline for submission is 31 January 2025.
The Environment Agency monitoring plan explains how they will check businesses are complying each year.
February 2025
Use your RPD account to manage your recycling obligations for 2025, including to accept or reject PRNs and PERNs.
You’ll still be able to log into NPWD to view previous years’ data, but you will need to log into your RPD account to manage your PRNs and PERNs for your 2025 recycling obligations.
Waste disposal fees
If you’re a large organisation responsible for packaging, the data you collect and report in 2024 will be used to calculate the waste disposal fees that you must pay in 2025. These are also called waste management fees.
Fees for packaging placed on the market in 2024 will be invoiced from October 2025.
Illustrative base fees for EPR are now available. The illustrative fees are a first estimate of the waste disposal fees, based on the best available evidence to date, and are not final figures.
In future, waste disposal fees will also vary depending on how easily the packaging can be recycled. Your fee will be lower if you use packaging that is easier to recycle.
Get help
If you have any questions, contact your regulator or the EPR customer service team.
Environment Agency
Email: packagingproducers@environment-agency.gov.uk
Natural Resources Wales
Email: packaging@naturalresourceswales.gov.uk
Scottish Environment Protection Agency
Email: producer.responsibility@sepa.org.uk
Northern Ireland Environment Agency
Email: packaging@daera-ni.gov.uk
Defra EPR customer service
Telephone: 0300 060 0002 Monday to Friday, 8am to 4:30pm