Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved
CitationSI 1997/648

1997 No. 648

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997

Made 5th March 1997

Coming into force 6th March 1997

The Secretary of State for the Environment, as respects England and Wales, and the Secretary for Scotland, as respects Scotland, in exercise of the powers conferred upon them by sections 93, 94 and 95 of the Environment Act 19951, for the implementation of article 6(1) of Directive 94/62/EC2and of all other powers enabling them in that behalf, after consultation in accordance with section 93(2) of that Act, and after having regard to the matters specified in section 93(6) of that Act as required by section 93(5) of that Act, hereby make the following Regulations, a draft of which has been laid before and approved by a resolution of each House of Parliament:—

1 GENERAL

PART I

GENERAL

S-1 Citation and commencement

Citation and commencement

1. These Regulations may be cited as the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997 and shall come into force on the day after the day on which they are made.

S-2 Interpretation and notices

Interpretation and notices

2.—(1) In these Regulations—

“the Act” means the Environment Act 1995;

the 1990 Act” means the Environmental Protection Act 19903;

“the Director” means the Director General of Fair Trading;

“energy recovery” means the use of combustible packaging waste as a means to generate energy through direct incineration with or without other waste but with recovery of the heat;

“organic recycling” means the aerobic (composting) or anaerobic (biomethanization) treatment, under controlled conditions and using micro-organisms, of the biodegradable parts of packaging waste, which produces stabilized organic residues or methane; for the purposes of these Regulations landfill shall not be considered a form of organic recycling;

“packaging” means all products made of any materials of any nature to be used for the containment, protection, handling, delivery and presentation of goods, from raw materials to processed goods, from the producer to the user or the consumer, including non-returnable items used for the same purposes but only where the products are—

(a) sales packaging or primary packaging, that is to say packaging conceived so as to constitute a sales unit to the final user or consumer at the point of purchase;

(b) grouped packaging or secondary packaging, that is to say packaging conceived so as to constitute at the point of purchase a grouping of a certain number of sales units whether the latter is sold as such to the final user or consumer or whether it serves only as a means to replenish the shelves at the point of sale; it can be removed from the product without affecting its characteristics; or

(c) transport packaging or tertiary packaging, that is to say packaging conceived so as to facilitate handling and transport of a number of sales units or grouped packagings in order to prevent physical handling and transport damage; for the purposes of these Regulations transport packaging does not include road, rail, ship and air containers;

“packaging materials” means materials used in the manufacture of packaging and includes raw materials and processed materials prior to their conversion into packaging;

“packaging waste” means any packaging or packaging material covered by the definition of waste in article 1 of Directive 75/442 EC4(“the Waste Directive”) which, together with Annex 1 to that Directive, is reproduced in Part I of Schedule 3 to these Regulations, other than production residues and, by virtue of article 2(1)(b)(i) of the Waste Directive, radioactive waste;

“preceding year” has the meaning given in regulation 3;

“producer” has the meaning given in regulation 3 and the classes of producer are those set out in column 4 of the Table in Schedule 1;

“producer responsibility obligations” are the producer registration, recovery and recycling, and certifying obligations specified in regulation 3;

“recovery” means any of the applicable operations provided for in Annex IIB to the Waste Directive, reproduced in Part II of Schedule 3;

“recycling” means the reprocessing in a production process of the waste materials for the original purpose or for other purposes including organic recycling but excluding energy recovery;

“relevant year” has the meaning given in regulation 3;

“reprocessor” means a person who, in the ordinary course of conduct of a trade, occupation or profession, carries out the activities of recovery or recycling;

“reuse” means any operation by which packaging, which has been conceived and designed to accomplish within its life cycle a minimum number of trips or rotations, is refilled or used for the same purpose for which it was conceived, with or without the support of auxiliary products present on the market enabling the packaging to be refilled; such reused packaging will become packaging waste when no longer subject to reuse;

“scheme” means a scheme which is (or, if it were to be registered in accordance with these Regulations would be) a scheme whose members for the time being are, by virtue of these Regulations and their membership of that scheme, exempt from the requirement to comply with their producer responsibility obligations and “registered scheme” means a scheme which is registered with the appropriate Agency in accordance with these Regulations;

“transit packaging” means—

(a) grouped packaging or secondary packaging, as defined in paragraph (b) of the definition of packaging in this regulation; or

(b) transport packaging or tertiary packaging as defined in paragraph (c) of that definition of packaging; and

“year” means a calendar year beginning on 1st January.

(2) Where notices are to be served on a producer under regulations 6(6), 10, and 11(3), information is to be provided by a producer under regulations 7 and 8, fees are to be paid by a producer under regulation 9(2), and records and returns are to be maintained and furnished by a producer under regulation 22, they shall be served on, provided, paid, or maintained and furnished, by

(a)

(a) in the case of a partnership with a principal place of business in England and Wales, the partner notified under regulation 6(4)(e), or in accordance with the undertaking referred to in regulation 7(a)(ii), or

(b)

(b) in the case of a partnership with a principal place of business in Scotland, by a partner acting on behalf of the partnership,

and references in these Regulations to the producer shall be read accordingly.

(3) Where the operator of a scheme is a partnership, or where this is not the case but there is more than one operator of a scheme—

(a)

(a) notices to be served on the operator of the scheme under regulations 12(6), 16, 17(3), 31(5) and (10), shall be served on the partner or operator, respectively, notified under regulation 12(3)(h), or in accordance with the condition referred to in regulation 13(d)(ii); and

(b)

(b) where information is to be provided by the operator of the scheme under regulations 13 and 14, fees are to be paid by the operator of the scheme under regulation 15(3), records and returns are to be maintained and furnished by the operator of the scheme under regulation 24, and appeals may be made by the operator of the scheme under regulation 18, they shall be provided, paid, or maintained and furnished, and such appeals may only be made, by the partner or operator, respectively, notified under regulation 12(3)(h), or in accordance with the condition referred to in regulation 13(d)(ii),

and references in these Regulations to the operator of the scheme shall be read accordingly.

2 PRODUCERS AND OBLIGATIONS

PART II

PRODUCERS AND OBLIGATIONS

S-3 Producers and producer responsibility obligations

Producers and producer responsibility obligations

3.—(1) This regulation is subject to regulations 4, 29 and 30.

(2) In respect of a year a person is a producer of a class specified in an entry in column 4 of the Table set out in Schedule 1 if—

(a)

(a) in that year and the preceding year he performs the relevant functions of the class of producer specified in Column 1 of that Table in relation to that entry;

(b)

(b) in the preceding year he made supplies of the materials or products specified in Column 2 of that Table in relation to that entry of a class in Column 3 of that Table in relation to that entry; and

(c)

(c) in relation to that year he satisfies the threshold tests as provided by paragraph 3 of that Schedule,

and the other provisions of that Schedule shall also have effect for the purposes of determining whether a person is a producer of any class.

(3) Where in respect of a year a person is a producer and satisfies the provisions of Columns 1 to 3 of the Table in Schedule 1 in relation to more than one class of producer specified in an entry in Column 4 of that Table, whether or not in relation to the same materials or products specified in Column 2 of that Table, or the same transaction or process, for that year that person belongs to each such class.

(4) For the purposes of these Regulations—

(a)

(a) “relevant year” is the year referred to in paragraph (2) above, that is to say a year in respect of which a person is a producer; and

(b)

(b) “preceding year” is the year immediately preceding a relevant year.

(5) A person who is a producer in respect of a year has producer responsibility obligations in respect of that year, that is to say he shall—

(a)

(a) be registered as provided in regulation 5 (in these Regulations referred to as the “producer registration obligation”); and

(b)

(b) for the year 1998 and subsequent years—

(i) take reasonable steps to recover and recycle packaging waste (in these Regulations referred to as the “recovery and recycling obligations”) in relation to each of the classes of producer to which the producer belongs, calculated as provided in Schedule 2, and

(ii) furnish a certificate of compliance in respect of his recovery and...

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