If you’re a UK organisation that supplies or imports packaging, you may be affected by extended producer responsibility (EPR) for packaging.   

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 

You must meet your obligations for each material individually. If you exceed your obligation in a material, you will see a negative number in that category.

You cannot use excess PRNs or PERNs acquired for one material to substitute meeting your obligation in another material. For example if you exceed your recycling obligation for glass, you will still need to meet your specific obligation for paper in full.

Get evidence of your packaging waste recycling  

Once you’ve registered on the report packaging data (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.

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.

Where to manage your PRNs and PERNs

The way you can access and choose what year to accept your PRNs and PERNs hasfor changed.

Youis willchanging. soonThe befollowing abletimeline explains how to usemanage theyour EPRPRNs forand packagingPERNs service,over accessiblethe throughnext yourfew RPDmonths. 

December account,2024 

Use instead of the National Packaging Waste Database (NPWD) to acceptmanage oryour reject2024 recycling obligations as usual, including accepting PRNs and PERNs towardsup yourto 2025and obligation.including  31 January 2025. 

YourIf specificyou recyclinghave obligationsany forDecember each2024 materialwaste forPRNs 2025or willPERNs bethat calculatedyou anddo visiblenot onwant theto EPRuse fortoward packagingyour service2024 afterrecycling obligations, you areshould registered,leave them in ‘awaiting acceptance’ on NPWD. In early February, those PRNs and you’vePERNs submittedwill bothbecome available when you log in to your packagingRPD account and organisationyou datawill andbe itable hasto beenaccept acceptedthem bytoward theyour regulators.2025 recycling obligations  

January been2025 

Use calculated,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 statusas ‘awaiting acceptance’ on theNPWD, EPRso forthey packagingcan be passed to the RPD service and accepted there toward meeting your upcoming 2025 recycling obligation.  

ToIf findyou outlog howinto your recyclingRPD obligationaccount, you will besee calculated,a new section called ‘managing recycling obligations’ but you will not see scheduleany 5PRNs or PERNs until February 2025.  

NPWD will generate certificates of the Producercompliance Responsibility(CoC) Obligationsfor (Packagingdirectly andregistered Packagingorganisations Waste)as Regulationsusual. 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.  

How

The todeadline viewfor datasubmission fromis previous31 yearsJanuary 2025.  

The Environment Agency monitoring plan explains how they will check businesses are complying each year.

February 2025 

IfUse youyour needRPD account to seemanage your datarecycling fromobligations previousfor years,2025, youincluding canto accept or reject PRNs and PERNs.   

You’ll still be able to log into the 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  

Email: EPRCustomerService@defra.gov.uk