However, today (8 November), supermarket chain Morrisons had its data for the year accepted by the Agency. The chain was one of the largest producers yet to submit data so will add a “hefty” amount to obligations for the year.
In a notice published on 18 October, seen by letsrecycle.com, the Agency said there were 185 late companies, known as drop-offs, still to register at the time.
Five of the 182 ‘drop offs’ account for around 302,000 tonnes of this estimated additional tonnage, the Agency says.
Morrisons
The exact impact of Morrisons’ late registration on PRN prices will become clear in the next few days.
On one hand, provisional Q3 data published by the Agency last month showed that progress towards meeting targets was “tight” (see letsrecycle.com story), so adding to the obligation will make it harder to hit and thus increase prices.
However, the Agency notice in October said that compliance schemes’ acquisition of PRNs currently exceeds their reported obligation, “which potentially indicates they are planning for the additional obligations arising from these companies.”
Notice
Targets for the amount of PRNs needed for the year are based on a percentage of what is placed on the market by producers the previous year.
Producers are obliged to submit this data by the following April and targets are calculated on the back of this. Producers only face a fine of around £110 for registering late.
In its October notice, the Agency outlined a number of actions it has taken to target drop offs. The environmental regulator said it “applies a risk-based approach, and we aim to investigate the companies that pose the highest environment risk with the resources that we have”.
It said it took the following steps to tackle the issue:
- Contacted compliance schemes to work with them to resolve their unregistered members
- Sent 300 letters to suspected drop offs
- Followed up with emails and phone calls to the top 20 unregistered producers by tonnage
- “More intensive follow-up” with the top three unregistered producers by tonnage
Meeting
Elsewhere in the notice, the Environment Agency also said it was arranging a meeting with one business to deliver advice and guidance and request it takes steps to ensure it registers for 2023 ahead of the deadline.
The notice added: “Drop offs that fail to register by the end of the compliance year, and which our intelligence indicates they were likely an obligated producer in 2022, will be included in a free rider follow up/investigation process, which, with finite resources adopts a risk-based approach.”
The Agency also highlighted the number of drop offs since 2021. The notice says 586 producers were identified as not re-registering for 2022 following the registration deadline of 7 April.
The Agency notice said “ops” had confirmed that 196 of the drop offs are no longer obligated and need to register. Two hundred and five of the drop offs registered late.
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