Extended Producer Responsibility

• You will be responsible for paying an EPR fee if you are an individual business, subsidiary or group with a registered UK presence with an annual turnover of £1m or more and you handle over 25 tonnes of obligated packaging in a calendar year.
• You will also be responsible if you carry out any of the following activities:

1. 1. Package own-brand products to supply to UK consumers
   2. Use a third party to package and supply own-brand goods to UK consumers
   3. Use unbranded secondary/tertiary (please check above to know the difference between primary, secondary and tertiary packaging) to protect goods during transport so they can be supplied to UK consumers
   4. Supply empty packaging (branded or unbranded) to a business that does not meet the large business threshold (a producer or seller of over 50 tonnes of packaging and has a UK turnover of over £2 million)
   5. Import goods from a brand that does not have a UK presence
   6. Remove packaging from imported goods
   7. Hire or loan out reusable packaging to UK third parties
   8. The owner of an online marketplace facilitating the sale of packaged goods from outside the UK

• EPR fees will only apply to household waste. This includes primary (crisp packets, sweet wrappers, yoghurt pots, tins of beans, etc.) and shipment packaging (jiffy bags, mailing bags and envelopes). All packaging must be reported whether it is household or non-household.

• To find out more about the difference between household and non-household waste, please visit: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/extended-producer-responsibility-for-packaging-how-to-assess-household-and-non-household-packaging#more-examples

1. Packaging provided to consumers with take-away food or drink, including wraps, boxes, cups, cup-holders, bags and paper.
2. Packaging on confectionery, where the confectionery weighs less than 230g, including chewing gum packaging and chocolate wrappers.
3. Packaging on cigarettes, cigars, tobacco, e-cigarettes and vaping refills.
4. Crisp packets or packaging on other savoury snacks, where the crisps or snacks weigh less than 60g.
5. Packaging on single portions of food which can be consumed immediately without further preparation, including sausage rolls, sushi, sandwiches, biscuits and individual cakes.
6. Cartons holding 850ml or less of drink, whose contents can be consumed immediately without dilution.
7. Pouches containing less than 600ml of drink, whose contents can be consumed immediately without dilution.
8. Cereal bar packaging.
9. Single portion yoghurt pots, tubes or pouches.
10. Single portion ice cream packaging.
11. Boxes, bags, pouches, buckets or tubs of confectionery containing individually wrapped sweets, chocolates or gum etc where the contents of the sales unit weigh less than 230g.

If you are a large producer, then you need to submit reports twice a year:

• 1^st October to report for January to June
• 1^st April to report for July to December

If you are a small producer, then you must submit reports on an annual basis:

• 1^st April to report for January to December

The Environment Agency has a range of enforcement options that it may use to address non-compliance with the regulations. These include financial penalties and prosecution.

From the 1^st January 2025, all household packaging components must be assessed using the Recyclability Assessment Methodology (RAM). This colour codes the packaging components as red, amber or green depending on their recyclability. Red graded packaging components will incur the highest fees as they are the hardest to recycle. Therefore, in order to reduce your EPR fees, it is worth reducing the number of red graded packaging components. Also consider switching packaging materials or reducing the size, thickness and weight of packaging.

EPR is a new legislation that will impact most businesses and it is likely that costs will increase to cover the EPR fees.

Check out our range of more sustainable packaging and disposables from Catering Supplies here.

For more advice, click here.

Your first point of contact should be your compliance scheme if you are using one. However, if you have any questions specifically for Bidfood, please contact your account manager who will pass your message to the relevant team.