The UK has approved amendments to the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024, taking effect on 1 January 2026 across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The instrument was laid on 3 November 2025 and applies UK‑wide with devolved consent.
The central operational change is a closed‑loop offset for food‑grade plastic household packaging collected from consumers by the same producer and recycled by a single accredited reprocessor back into food‑grade material. Qualifying tonnages can be deducted from disposal fee calculations, subject to evidence and reporting rules.
To claim the offset, large producers must pay an additional charge of £2,548 and report closed‑loop tonnages through the Report Packaging Data service. There is a single £2,548 charge covering amended 2024 and 2025 data if paid by 28 January 2026, and a further £2,548 is required to use the mechanism for 2026 data. Regulators state that closed‑loop data cannot be submitted if the charge is not paid.
Evidence standards tighten alongside the offset: producers must obtain proof from an accredited reprocessor or exporter that material meeting the closed‑loop definition was recycled into food‑grade outputs, and retain data for seven years. Government guidance confirms seven‑year retention for EPR records.
Material definitions are adjusted to reduce ambiguity in reporting and fee setting. Fibre‑based composites are clarified as paperboard or paper fibres with plastic layers that cannot be hand‑separated and are not classed as paper or board. Paper or board can include items with plastic layers totalling no more than five per cent by mass where evidenced by the producer. The exempt packaging list is also updated to align with deposit return schemes, including a low‑volume line exemption.
Charities are no longer excluded from the regulations in full; instead, they are excluded from producer obligations and from liability to pay disposal and administration fees. Other provisions can still apply where relevant.
Producer scope rules are clarified to reduce double‑counting. Responsibility generally sits with the first producer to make a supply; later transactions do not create new producers except for sellers, and only genuinely new packaging components create fresh obligations. Where multiple brands appear, the brand owner with the largest external surface area logo may be the responsible producer if the first supply was not by any brand owner. Ministers flagged these clarifications during parliamentary scrutiny.
Corporate events are given a clearer treatment. New provisions set out how obligations and status transfer in mergers and brand or business sales, including continuity of reporting and recycling obligations and the ability to use existing PRNs/PERNs. The approach is designed to prevent gaps in liability and ensure accurate invoices for disposal and administration fees.
PackUK’s fee arrangements continue, with changes from 1 January 2026 to registration charges paid to environmental regulators. Government guidance lists the 2026 charges as £2,842 for large organisations and £1,303 for small organisations registering directly (different rates apply via compliance schemes), late fees of £386, and subsidiary charges of £690 and £172. Online marketplaces attract an additional £2,885. The same guidance confirms the £2,548 closed‑loop charge described above.
Disposal fee modulation remains in place and will be applied by PackUK from the 2026 assessment year, initially based on recyclability under the Recyclability Assessment Methodology, with scope to widen the criteria following review.
Enforcement and governance are strengthened. The instrument enables a Producer Responsibility Organisation (PRO) model from 2026, allowing an independent not‑for‑profit body-appointed with four‑nation consent-to carry out specified operational functions alongside PackUK, while sovereign functions such as data ownership and fee setting remain with the scheme administrator.
Regulators also gain tools to address free‑riders and missed liabilities, including a late‑assessment route to bill liable producers identified after initial calculations. The Welsh Government’s statement highlights updated enforcement and transitional provisions accompanying these powers.
Transitional rules allow producers to amend earlier returns. Where conditions are met, producers may resubmit data for January–June 2024 and July–December 2024 by 28 January 2026 and for January–June 2025 by April 2026 to incorporate eligible closed‑loop tonnages, with revised 2025 invoices then issued. The closed‑loop charge timetable above applies to these resubmissions.
For material classification in 2025 reports, regulators previously set a pragmatic position on fibre‑based composite and paper/board boundaries in England pending the legislative amendment, signalling that enforcement would reflect the forthcoming definitions. Businesses should ensure their 2025 filings and any corrections align with those definitions from 2026.
What this means in practice: finance and compliance teams should budget for the higher 2026 registration fees; decide by 28 January 2026 whether to pay for closed‑loop offset use for 2024–2026 data; confirm whether any in‑house take‑back schemes meet food‑grade, single‑reprocessor and evidence thresholds; and update internal playbooks for the new material definitions. Organisations planning mergers or brand transfers should factor in the continuity of reporting and recycling obligations described above.
Local authorities and waste managers should note that PackUK will continue to issue assessments and that the amendments emphasise environmental outcomes when allocating payments, with the UK‑wide model and PRO capability intended to improve operational delivery.