Clarification on Household and Non-Household Waste

Clarification on Household and Non-Household Waste under New EPR Regulations

With the introduction of EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) the UK Government is legislating that UK producers placing packaging waste onto the UK waste stream, should be responsible for funding the recycling of that packaging, as well as the collection and sorting process.

This will initially be applicable to producers where packaging is classed as household waste.

Household Waste Classification

Any producers handling primary, secondary and transit packaging (that is supplied to UK households who consume the packaging) will be obligated. Packaging that is supplied to a business (who are the consumer of the packaging) will not be obligated under the new regulations. However, the business will need to provide clear evidence to prove that it is the end user of the packaging and that there is no opportunity for it to end up in a household bin.

If no evidence is provided the packaging will be classed as household, and therefore the producer will be obligated under EPR. For example, if a producer supplies packaging to a distributor that has a mix of B2B and B2C customers, it will be classed as household.

Understanding you packaging activity

Producers will need to understand their packaging activities as per their supply chain, in order to clearly define if it will be classed as household waste. Any packaging that they deem to be business waste will require clear evidence to support this.

How ERP can help

ERP’s compliance team support hundreds of companies navigate these changes – enquire today about becoming a member.

ERP’s data services team are specialists in collecting, checking and calculating the data companies need for packaging data reporting – enquire today about how they can help

Want to know more?

Download our Factsheets:

Data Services Factsheet here:

Packaging Compliance Factsheet here:

EPR Factsheet here:

Contact us today:

Telephone: +44 (0)20 3142 6452 E-mail: uk@erp-recycling.org

Author: Simon Hubbard, Business Manager, ERP UK