Guidance

Accepting household packaging waste at HWRCs: RPS 234

Updated 19 February 2024

Applies to England

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/accepting-classifying-and-disposing-of-household-packaging-waste-rps-234/accepting-classifying-and-disposing-of-household-packaging-waste-rps-234

This regulatory position statement (RPS) does not change your legal requirement to comply with an environmental permit for a waste operation to accept separately collected household packaging waste when codes 15 01 01 to 15 01 09 are not in your environmental permit.

However, the Environment Agency will not normally take enforcement action against you if you do not comply with this legal requirement provided that:

  • your activity meets the description set out in this RPS

  • you comply with the conditions set out in this RPS

In addition, your activity must not cause (or be likely to cause) pollution of the environment or harm to human health, and must not:

  • cause a risk to water, air, soil, plants or animals

  • cause a nuisance through noise or odours

  • adversely affect the countryside or places of special interest

Activity this RPS applies to

This RPS applies to Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs) accepting non-hazardous separately collected household packaging waste, coded 15 01 01 to 15 01 09, where these waste codes are not in your environmental permit.  

Conditions you must comply with

You must:

  • be a HWRC holding a waste environmental permit

  • classify all household packaging waste under the relevant waste codes 15 01 01 to 15 01 09 - where a proportion of the waste is not packaging waste, you can dual code under both the relevant 15 01 and 20 01 codes

  • keep records for 2 years to show that you have complied with this RPS and make these records available to the Environment Agency on request

When you must check back

The Environment Agency intends to review this RPS by 1 January 2027.

The Environment Agency can withdraw or amend this regulatory position before the review date if they consider it necessary. This includes where the activity that this RPS relates to has not changed.

You will need to check back from time to time, including at and before the review date, to see if this RPS still applies.

This RPS remains in force until it is removed from GOV.UK or is otherwise identified as having been withdrawn.

If you cannot comply with this RPS

If you operate under this RPS but can no longer comply with it, you must stop the activity to which this RPS relates and must tell the Environment Agency immediately - see ‘Contact the Environment Agency’.

Contact the Environment Agency

If you have any questions about this RPS email enquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk and include ‘RPS 234’ in the subject.

General enquiries

National Customer Contact Centre
PO Box 544
Rotherham
S60 1BY

Email enquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk

Telephone 03708 506 506

Telephone from outside the UK (Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm GMT) +44 (0) 114 282 5312

Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.

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