GovWire

Guidance: Packaging waste: apply to be an accredited reprocessor or exporter

Environment Agency

September 29
14:52 2023

Accredited reprocessors or exporters recycle packaging waste discarded by UK businesses and households. They generate electronic packaging recycling notes (ePRNs) and electronic packaging export recycling notes (ePERNs), also known as evidence notes.

Packaging producers, or packaging producer compliance schemes (PCSs) on behalf of their members, obtain ePRNs and ePERNs to meet their recycling obligations. The notes are evidence they have met their recycling obligation.

Changes to targets for the 2021 and 2022 compliance years

Operators cannot be accredited for recovering packaging materials. This is because of the 2019 consultation on packaging reform and the EU directive on packaging and packaging waste.

From 2021, reprocessors or exporters can only be accredited for recycling packaging waste discarded by UK businesses and households.

Check if you can apply for accreditation

You must have a UK presence with a UK address for receiving your business communication and be actively receiving, treating and recycling waste or exporting waste to be recycled overseas.

You must:

  • recycle UK sourced packaging waste
  • export UK sourced packaging waste for recycling

When you recycle the packaging waste into a new product or material it must need no further processing and meet end of waste status.

It is an offence to include misleading information in your accreditation. You must check the processes and materials you can be accredited for. You can find these in the packaging waste: recycling processes section in this guide.

Application dates

The accreditation year is from 1 January until 31 December. You must submit your application by 30 September for your accreditation to start on the following 1 January (subject to accreditation).

You may apply any time during the year, but it may take up to 12 weeks to determine your application. Your accreditation start date may be later than 1 January but will always end on 31 December.

You cannot issue evidence notes on any packaging waste you received or exported before your accreditation start date.

Charges for accreditation application

UK reprocessors must apply and pay a fee for each facility. Exporters must apply and pay one fee for the company. The fee includes all the waste materials included in an application.

Reprocessors and exporters can apply for new waste material types, facilities and overseas sites. However, the regulators treat these as new applications and you will need to pay another application fee.

The amount you pay depends on the weight of ePRNs and ePERNs you plan to issue for the UK packaging waste you recycle or export for recycling in the compliance year. The annual fee is:

  • 505 if you plan to issue 400 tonnes or less of ePRNs or ePERNs you will be classed as a small accredited reprocessor or exporter
  • 2,616 if you plan to issue more than 400 tonnes of ePRNs or ePERNs you will be classed as a large reprocessor or exporter

You must total up the weight of all the materials you will issue ePRNs or ePERNs on to determine if you are a small or large reprocessor or exporter. For example, if you are an exporter and you issue 200 tonnes of paper ePERNs and 201 tonnes of plastic ePERNs, you are a large exporter.

Exporters can apply with no overseas reprocessing sites and add them once accredited. For each batch of extra overseas sites you add after your initial accreditation, you must pay 85 for the first overseas reprocessor and 35 for each additional site.

If you pay the lower charge but then issue ePRNs or ePERNs for more than 400 tonnes during the compliance year

You will have to pay the balance of 2,111 within 28 days of issuing the ePRN or ePERN for the 401st tonne of packaging waste.

If you do not pay the additional fee:

  • any additional evidence you issue may not be treated as valid
  • your accreditation may be suspended or cancelled
  • it may be a consideration when assessing a future accreditation application

Apply for accreditation

Apply online using the National Packaging Waste Database (NPWD).

Reprocessors must submit an application for each site. Each reprocessing site is accredited separately. An accreditation can cover multiple materials.

Exporters can submit an application with no, one or multiple overseas reprocessing sites. Sites can be added after accreditation with the appropriate payment. Your accreditation does not authorise you to export waste. When exporting waste, you must follow the international waste shipments requirements. See the guide waste export and import.

Step 1

If you do not already have an NPWD account, request a user name and password from the environmental regulator of the UK country your main place of business is based.

Step 2

Log in to NPWD and specify the type of accreditation you are applying for reprocessor or exporter. You can submit multiple applications. Complete the online form. You do not have to complete it in one session, you can save and reopen to fully complete another time.

Step 3

Upload supporting documents. You can fill in the best practice templates provided in the Advisory Committee for Packaging (ACP) section of NPWD.

Reprocessors need to upload:

  • a business plan
  • a sampling and inspection plan
  • recording systems
  • details of the recycling processes used

Exporters need to upload:

  • a business plan
  • a sampling and inspection plan
  • recording systems
  • for non-EU and non-OECD sites, evidence that the site the waste is being exported to meets the same environmental standards as those in the UK (known as broadly equivalent) check the guidance on what information to provide

For EU and OECD sites, exporters:

  • are not required to upload evidence at the point of application for accreditation about the site the waste is being exported to meets the same environmental standards as those in the UK (known as broadly equivalent)
  • should obtain and retain this evidence before any export that has ePERNs issued
  • should make the evidence available on request

Step 4

Pay the correct accreditation fee to the appropriate environmental regulator.

Payments

You can pay by bank transfer using the following details.

Bank transfer (for example BACS or CHAPS) England

To transfer your fee, use t

Related Articles

Comments

  1. We don't have any comments for this article yet. Why not join in and start a discussion.

Write a Comment

Your name:
Your email:
Comments:

Post my comment

Recent Comments

Follow Us on Twitter

Share This


Enjoyed this? Why not share it with others if you've found it useful by using one of the tools below: