Legislation

The UK Government transposed the Directive into UK law, in the form of 'Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997', which came into effect on 1 January 1998. The regulations apply to any UK business which manufactures, fills or sells packaging or packaging materials in excess of 50 tonnes per year and has an annual turnover in excess of £2 million.

Taking into account the fact that small businesses do not have targets, recycling targets are set so that the UK as a whole will meet the following national targets, to comply with the EU Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste.

(%)	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
Steel	52	53.2	54	54.6	55
Aluminium	28	30	31.5	32	32.4
Paper	62	62.7	63	63.7	64
Plastics	21	22	22.9	23.4	23.8
Glass	53.5	57	60.5	61	61.3
Wood	15.7	16.3	17	17.3	17.7

The following graph shows these targets, and performance to date. (Source: UK Government)

Recycling Target Shares

The regulations require each obligated company to have a specific, quantified recovery target dependent upon the weight of material handled and its ‘activity’ in the supply chain. Responsibility for achievement of targets is shared between the four activities as follows:

Activity	Share
Selling packaged goods	48%
Filling packaging	37%
Making packaging	9%
Making raw materials for packaging	6%

These shares were allocated on the basis that they would produce approximately the same cost for each company ‘activity’, expressed as a percentage of turnover.

Compliance

All UK companies affected by the legislation are required to register with either a compliance scheme or with the Environment Agency (England and Wales), SEPA (Scotland) or EHS (Northern Ireland) to provide data on the total tonnages of packaging handled for UK consumption, by activity.

Packaging Recovery Notes

Packaging chain companies are obliged to hold Packaging Recovery Notes (PRNs), as evidence that their legal responsibility to recover and recycle has been fulfilled.

Corus is an accredited UK steel reprocessor, and is able to sell PRNs to obligated companies and Compliance Scheme Activities.