Packaging waste accreditation deadline put forward

Emergency legislation has been put in place to change the deadline for applications from packaging waste reprocessors and exporters, following a Government consultation.


Under this legislation, the Environment Agency (EA) will now be able to grant further applications for the rest of the year.

Published in February, the consultation proposed to remove the deadline of 30 September for applications to have been submitted for accreditation as a reprocessor or exporter in the following year from the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997 and the parallel statutory instruments in the devolved administrations.

Only reprocessors and exporters that have been accredited by the environment agencies can issue Packaging Waste Recovery Notes (PRNs) and Packaging Waste Export Recovery Notes (PERNs), which are used as evidence of compliance by producers with recycling obligations under the regulations.

The regulations had required applications for accreditation in a year to be received by 30 September in the preceding year. This would have meant that no further reprocessors or exporters could have been accredited by the Environment Agencies for 2005.

The Government decided to consult on this issue as a result of a number of difficulties identified by stakeholders in previous communications.

The Producer Responsibility Obligations Regulations 2005 were laid in Parliament on 17 March and came into force in England and Wales on 7 April.

Parallel statutory instruments in Scotland and Northern Ireland will follow separately in due course.

By Jane Kettle

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