Corporate report

Packaging producer responsibility monitoring plan 2019

Updated 22 May 2020

This corporate report was withdrawn on 27 June 2022

View newer information at Packaging producer responsibility monitoring 2021 and Packaging producer responsibility monitoring 2022.

Applies to England

The Environment Agency monitors businesses to ensure that:

• packaging producers in England contribute to EU Packaging Directive recovery and recycling targets
• all obligated producers register
• producer compliance schemes fulfil their statutory duties on behalf of producer members
• they provide accurate data on the packaging that’s handled, recovered and recycled in the UK
• there’s accurate data on registered producers
• treatment, recovery and export operators comply with accreditation conditions
• waste packaging is recycled and recovered to directive standards
• waste packaging is not directed through illegal routes

Our compliance activities include:

• site inspections
• desk based assessments and reviews
• validation checks on data submissions
• data trend analysis, looking for errors and anomalies

Packaging charge income funds the majority of our compliance work with:

• producers
• producer compliance schemes
• accredited reprocessors
• accredited exporters

We allocate this funding, together with charges income from other producer responsibility regimes, to our national team for producer responsibility.

However, this packaging charge income does not fund our:

• inspections of green list waste exports
• inspections for compliance with the Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Regulations
• investigations into packaging producers who are not compliant (known as ‘freeriders’)

We pay for these activities with government funding.

In 2018 we reviewed how we work on producer responsibility and decided to adopt a single national approach. We’ve started to move staff involved in producer responsibility into one national team.

Non-compliance

The Environment Agency will continue to identify packaging producers who are not compliant (freeriders). We will investigate any freeriders reported to us. We will use a variety of ways to bring the non-compliant into compliance. Where necessary we will use our enforcement powers and tools.

We fund a Producer Responsibility Investigations Team to support our investigations and work on serious and significant cases.

See the Environment Agency’s enforcement and sanctions policy.

Assessing, monitoring and validating submissions

Submissions include:

• registrations
• accreditations
• quarterly data returns

The Environment Agency carries out a number of monitoring activities when processing registrations from both:

• direct registrants
• producers who are members of schemes

We monitor the submitted information and data from all (around 7,000) registered producers, including comparing data submissions with those from previous years.

In April each year we identify producers who have not re-registered. We contact them to:

• find out why they have not re-registered
• bring them back into compliance if necessary

In some cases we work with compliance schemes to achieve this. If producers do not register or indicate their status to us, we investigate these as freeriders.

At the application stage for accreditation, we assess sampling and inspection plans to make sure they are robust and reliable. After accreditation has been granted, we will monitor sampling and inspection plans during site inspections and desk based studies.

We will send accredited reprocessors and exporters a suspension notice if they do not submit a quarterly data return. We may follow up with performance improvement requirements or take enforcement action if necessary.

Monitoring schemes, direct registrants and accredited operators

Approved producer compliance schemes must register their scheme each year. We carry out a detailed compliance assessment of each registration.

We carry out quarterly monitoring of producer compliance schemes to check progress towards meeting their members’ obligations - for example checking procurement patterns for:

• packaging recovery notes (PRNs)
• packaging export recovery notes (PERNs)

We do this to manage the risk that the UK may not meet the national and EU targets. We monitor more frequently towards the end of the compliance year. If needed, we will highlight any issues we have with the scheme through telephone or email discussions.

Towards the end of the compliance period we monitor whether producers directly registered with us have met their obligations. We will contact producers if there’s an issue. We send reminders and will also check that obligated parties are:

• acquiring PRNs or PERNs
• accepting PRNs
• submitting certificates of compliance

We contact producers where we see a risk of non-compliance, for example if they have not acquired any PRNs.

Compliance monitoring

Using a risk-based approach we carry out compliance monitoring of:

• packaging producers
• compliance schemes
• accredited reprocessors
• accredited exporters

For the 2019 calendar year we are planning to carry out 10 site inspections of approved compliance schemes, in addition to our desk based compliance assessments.

We are planning to carry out 160 site inspections of accredited operators, visiting all sites identified as high risk (red and amber sites). These inspections will be directed by our risk profiling assessments. We are aiming to visit each large accredited site (sites that can issue PRNs on over 400 tonnes) at least once during the compliance year.

We may carry out more than one site inspection on some operators if our intelligence, or our assessment of the risks, tells us this is needed. Site inspections may be pre-arranged or unannounced. Some sites may receive both types.

We will use risk profiling for site inspections for small accredited operators. There’s a cap on the ability of accredited small operators to issue evidence and this reduces the risks. But this does not mean that they will not be part of our site inspection compliance monitoring programme.

Summary of compliance planned activities

Producers

We will:

• contact all reported freeriders to increase producer registrations and on a risk basis, investigate where necessary
• review and validate all direct registration applications so that national publications contain accurate data
• contact all producers who fail to re-register (drop offs) to confirm that they are no longer a producer, or to bring them back into compliance
• complete site inspections to validate data submissions or request that data is submitted
• contact all direct registrant companies at risk of failing to comply - to make sure they meet their recovery and recycling obligations and submit their certificate of compliance

Producer compliance schemes

We will:

• make basic checks on all registration data sets so national publications contain accurate data
• contact all producers who fail to re-register (drop offs) to confirm that they are no longer a producer, or to bring them back into compliance

To identify and resolve potential non-compliances we will use desk based monitoring to:

• compliance assess all scheme registrations
• carry out quarterly monitoring of all producer compliance schemes and discuss their compliance position
• assess all ad hoc Environment Agency template submissions (approximately 200)
• assess the Statement of Compliance for all producer compliance schemes

We will complete 10 site inspections to check conditions of approval have been complied with and to identify and address any failures.

Accredited operators

We will:

• determine all applications (and sampling and inspection plans) within the 12 week statutory period and only accredit valid operators
• carry out desk based assessments of all quarterly data returns and address any anomalies
• carry out 160 site inspections, visiting all red and amber sites to check compliance with conditions of accreditation, and use improvement plans, enforcement, or both, to address any failures