Guidance has also been issued on packaging leasing companies, and concerning other changes within new consolidated regulations that came into force on January 1.
This includes changes to help small businesses cope with administration costs involved in complying with the producer responsibility rules.
The changes for licensing firms like pub-operating companies, as well as companies that lease out packaging, mean they will have to purchase a certain amount of packaging waste recovery notes (PRNs) from accredited packaging reprocessors.
This will demonstrate they have paid for their share of UK packaging recovery targets.
Licensing
The new regulations mean that companies that trade by selling licences or tenancies, franchises or similar arrangements, now take responsibility for all packaging within those arrangements.
The regulations would mean, for example, a pub-operating company running by selling licences and supplies to individual landlords takes on obligations based on the packaging handled by all landlords they have licensed.
Previously, the regulations effectively saw such companies washing their hands of producer responsibility for packaging waste, since it was licensees – and not the main company itself – handling packaging materials.
Speaking at Tuesday's Defra packaging conference in London, the Department's head of producer responsibility, Sheila McKinley, said that if the whole licensing or franchise operation was above the threshold size – 50 tonnes of packaging handled each year or 2 million turnover – the company was obligated.
She explained: “In terms of satisfying the threshold test, the licensor will consider his own turnover only – excluding that of the licensees; in terms of the tonnage test, the licensor considers his own packaging handled and that of his licensees.”
Leased packaging
Under the new regulations, companies that lease out re-usable packaging, such as crates or pallets, are now liable to pay for their share of UK recycling targets.
Mrs McKinley explained that the obligation was attached to “first trip” packaging – packaging newly placed on the market – but for packaging imported into the UK, it referred to all packaging.
She said: “Businesses that lease out packaging, and this includes things like pallets and crates, are now subject to a “service provision” activity obligation of 85%. This applies to new (first use) packaging and to imports of transit packaging (whether new or reused).”
SMEs
The third major set of new guidance is available for small packaging producers – defined as those with a turnover between 2 million and 5 million but that handle more than 50 tonnes of packaging each year.
With the aim of slashing red tape for small business, Defra has introduced a system in which these SMEs can have a recycling obligation allocated to them. This would mean they no longer have to go to the expense of analysing packaging tonnages handled and calculating complicated recycling and recovery obligations.
Mrs McKinley said this “allocation” approach was voluntary, but companies that opt to go this way would have to “stick with it for at least three years”.
She explained that the Environment Agency would have a set of allocation tables which would give the amount of recycling SMEs would have to pay for, calculated to the nearest 10,000 of turnover. The higher the turnover, the more recycling a company would have to pay for under the system, she said.
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Mrs McKinley explained: “If a business has turnover of 2,219,100, the rounded figure would be 2,220,000. The associated tonnage recycling obligation will be 56 tonnes. The business will have to recycle 56 tonnes and this will have to be in the main material that it handles.
“This is a recycling obligation only, and if a company handles more than one packaging material, they will only have to by the recycling in their main material handled,” she added.
The new guidance notes are available from Defra, and will be included within a new “user's guide” the Department is producing regarding the packaging producer responsibility regulations.
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