Search Legislation

Advanced Search

The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007

Help about what version

What Version

Help about advanced features

Advanced Features

Status:

Point in time view as at 31/12/2020.

Changes to legislation:

There are currently no known outstanding effects for the The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007, PART 1. Help about Changes to Legislation

Close

Changes to Legislation

Revised legislation carried on this site may not be fully up to date. At the current time any known changes or effects made by subsequent legislation have been applied to the text of the legislation you are viewing by the editorial team. Please see ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ for details regarding the timescales for which new effects are identified and recorded on this site.

PART 1N.I.GENERAL

Citation and commencementN.I.

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007 and shall come into operation on 5th April 2007.

(2) The Interpretation Act (NI) 1954(1) shall apply to these Regulations as it applies to an Act of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Commencement Information

I1Reg. 1 in operation at 5.4.2007, see reg. 1(1)

Interpretation and noticesN.I.

2.—(1) In these Regulations—

F1...

“the Department” means the Department of the Environment;

[F2“the Packaging Waste Directive” means Council Directive 94/62/EC on packaging and packaging waste as last amended by Directive (EU) 2018/852 ;][F3, and as read in accordance with regulation 2A]

[F4“PROR” means the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2007;]

[F5“the Waste Directive” means Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on waste, [F6as last amended by Directive (EU) 2018/851]] [F7, and as read in accordance with regulation 2B];

“the Order” means the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Northern Ireland) Order(2)

(2) In these Regulations—

“accredited exporter” means an operator who is accredited by the Department under regulation 24 ;

“accredited reprocessor” means a reprocessor who is accredited by the Department under regulation 24;

“allocation method” means the method set out in paragraph 7 of Schedule 2 for calculating the recycling obligations of a small producer who has elected under regulation 7 to follow this method;

[F8“appropriate authority” means the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs”; and]

[F9“approved person” means the person for the time being approved under regulation 34 for the purpose of—

(a)

issuing certificates of compliance under regulation 21 and signing the form referred to in regulation 7(4)(c), 7(4)(ca) or 19(2)(b) in relation to a particular producer; or

(b)

signing the form referred to in regulation 14(3)(c) and the statement referred to in regulation 22(4) in relation to a particular operator of a scheme;]

“calculation year” means the year preceding an obligation year;

“consumer information obligations” has the meaning given to it in regulation 4(4)(d);

[F10“disposal” means any of the operations listed in Schedule 1A;]

[F11“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 the recovery of heat;]

“exporter” means a person who, in the ordinary course of conduct of a trade, occupation or profession, owns and exports packaging waste for reprocessing outside the United Kingdom;

[F12“financial year” in relation to a person—

(a)

where the person is a company is determined as provided in section 390(1) to (3) of the Companies Act 2006; and

(b)

in any other case has the meaning given in section 390(4) of the Companies Act 2006, but as if the reference there to an undertaking were a reference to that person;]

[F13“grouped packaging or secondary packaging” means 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 if it can be removed from the product without affecting its characteristics;]

[F14“local authority” means a district council established under section 1 of the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972;]

[F15“marine installation” means any artificial island, installation or structure at sea, other than a vessel;]

“obligation year” means, for the purposes of this regulation and Schedule 11, a year in respect of which it is being considered whether a person is a producer;

[F16“organic recycling” means the aerobic (composting) or anaerobic (biomethanisation) treatment under controlled conditions and using microorganisms, of the biodegradable parts of packaging waste which produces organic residues or methane. Landfill shall not be considered a form of organic recycling;]

[F17“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 consumer; non-returnable items for the same purpose shall also be considered to constitute packaging if it consists only of—

(i)

sales packaging or primary packaging;

(ii)

grouped packaging or secondary packaging;

(iii)

transport packaging or tertiary packaging;

The definition shall be further based on the following criteria—

(aa)

the products fill the functions mentioned above without prejudice to other functions which the packaging might also perform, unless the item is an integral part of a product and it is necessary to contain, support or preserve that product throughout its lifetime and all elements are intended to be used, consumed or disposed of together;

(bb)

the products are designed and intended to be refilled at the point of sale and disposable items sold, filled or designed or intended to be filled at the point of sale, if they fulfil a packaging function;

(cc)

the products are packaging components or ancillary elements integrated into packaging;]

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

[F18“packaging waste” means any packaging or packaging material being any substance or object falling within the categories mentioned in Schedule 1B which the holder discards or intends or is required to discard;]

“partnership” has the meaning given in section 1 of the Partnership Act 1890(3);

“PERN” means a packaging waste export recovery note issued by an accredited exporter on a form supplied to him by the Department, as evidence of the export of the tonnage of packaging waste specified in the note for the reprocessing outside the United Kingdom;

“preceding year” means the year preceding a relevant year;

“PRN” means a packaging waste recovery note issued by an accredited reprocessor on a form supplied to him by the Department, as evidence of the receipt of the tonnage of packaging waste specified in the note for reprocessing within the United Kingdom;

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

“producer responsibility obligations” are the producer registration, recovery and recycling, certifying and consumer information obligations specified in regulation 4;

[F19“recovery” means any operation the principal result of which is the waste serving a useful purpose by replacing other materials which would otherwise have been used to fulfil a particular function, or waste being prepared for that function, in the plant or in the wider economy. [F20Annex II to the Waste Directive] sets out a non-exhaustive list of recovery operations;]

“recovery and recycling obligations” has the meaning given in regulation 4(4)(b);

“recyclable material” means—

(a)

glass;

(b)

aluminium;

(c)

steel;

(d)

paper/board;

(e)

plastic; or

(f)

wood,

and packaging materials composed of a combination of any of those materials are to be treated as made of the material which is predominant by weight;

[F21“recycling” means the reprocessing in a production process of waste materials for the original purpose or for other purposes including organic recycling but excluding energy recovery and “recycle” shall be construed accordingly;]

“recycling obligations” means the obligation to recycle set out in regulation 4(4)(b)(ii);

“relevant authorisation” means—

(a)

a permit granted under regulation 10 of The Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003(4);

(b)

an authorisation granted under Article 6 of the Industrial Pollution Control (Northern Ireland) Order 1997(5) (repealed by the Environment (Northern Ireland) Order 2002(6));

(c)

a waste management licence granted under Article 6 of The Waste and contaminated Land (Northern Ireland) Order 1997;

(d)

an exemption registered under regulation 17 of The Waste Management Licensing Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003(7).

“relevant date” means—

(a)

7th April in the obligation year; or

(b)

where an application for registration is made in a circumstance set out in regulation 7(3), or as required by paragraph 10 of Schedule 11, the date of the application;

“relevant year” means the year referred to in regulation 4(2), that is to say a year in respect of which a person is a producer;

“reprocessor” means a person who, in the ordinary course of conduct of a trade, occupation or profession, carries out one or more activities of recovery or recycling, and “reprocessing” shall be construed accordingly;

[F22“re-use” means any operation by which packaging, which has been conceived or 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 re-used packaging will become packaging no longer subject to re-use;]

[F13“sales packaging or primary packaging” means packaging conceived so as to constitute a sales unit to the final user or consumer at the point of purchase;]

“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 Department in accordance with these Regulations;

[F23“SIC code” means a code included in “Indexes to the UK Standard Industrial Classification of Economic Activities 2007” published by the Office for National Statistics in 2009;]

“small producer” means a producer F24... whose turnover in the last financial year in respect of which audited accounts are available (or where audited accounts are not required, the most recently available accounts of the producer) before the relevant date was £5,000,000 or less; and audited accounts shall be considered to be available when, where the person is a company, the annual accounts have been delivered to the registrar under [[F25section 441 of the Companies Act 2006]];

[F26“transit packaging” means grouped packaging or secondary packaging or transport packaging or tertiary packaging;]

[F13“transport packaging or tertiary packaging” means packaging conceived so as to facilitate handling and transport of a number of sales units or grouped packaging in order to prevent physical handling or transport damage. Transport packaging shall not include road, rail, ship and air containers;]

[F27“turnover” means, in relation to a person, their turnover as defined in section 539 of the Companies Act 2006 but as if the references to a company were references to that person;]

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

(3) Where—

(a)notices are to be served on a producer under regulations 7(7)(a), 10 or 11(3);

(b)information is to be provided by a producer under regulations 7 or 8;

(c)fees are to be paid by a producer under regulation 9(2); or

(d)records and returns are to be maintained and furnished by a producer under regulation 20,

they shall be served on, provided paid, or maintained and furnished by, in the case of a partnership, a partner acting on behalf of the partnership, and references in these Regulations to the producer shall be read accordingly.

(4) Where there is more than one operator of a scheme—

(a)notices to be served on the operator of the scheme under [F28regulations 13, 13A, 13B, 13C, 14 or 17] shall be served on the operator stated under regulation 14(3)(h);

(b)where information is to be provided by the operator of the scheme under regulations 14 and 15, fees are to be paid by the operator of the scheme under regulation 16, records and returns are to be maintained and furnished by the operator of the scheme under regulation 22, and appeals may be made by the operator of the scheme under regulation 27, they shall be provided, paid, or maintained and furnished, and such appeals may only be made, by the operator stated under regulation 14(3)(h),

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

(5) In these Regulations—

(a)any document which is to be provided or given to any person may be provided or given to that person in electronic form if the text is capable of being produced by that person in a visible and legible documentary form;

(b)any requirement to make, keep or retain a record or to maintain a register may be satisfied in electronic form if the text is capable of being produced by that person in a visible and legible documentary form;

(c)any requirement for a signature may be satisfied by an electronic signature incorporated into the document; and

(d)“electronic signature” means data in electronic form which are attached to or logically associated with other electronic data and which serve as a method of authentication.

Textual Amendments

Commencement Information

I2Reg. 2 in operation at 5.4.2007, see reg. 1(1)

[F29Modifications to the Packaging Waste DirectiveN.I.

2A.—(1) For the purposes of these Regulations, the Packaging Waste Directive is to be read in accordance with this regulation.

(2) A reference to one or more member States in a provision imposing an obligation or conferring a discretion on a member State or member States is to be read as a reference to the appropriate authority or local authority which, immediately before [F30IP completion day] , was responsible for the United Kingdom's compliance with that obligation or able to exercise that discretion in Northern Ireland.

[F31(3) Article 3 is to be read as if––

(a)in paragraph 2, for the words “Article 3 of Directive 2008/98/EC” there were substituted “Article 3(1) of the Waste Directive, as read with Articles 5 and 6 of that Directive;

(b)in paragraph 2c, for the words “Directive 2008/98/EC” there were substituted “the Waste Directive”.]

F32(4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .]

Textual Amendments

F30Words in reg. 2A substituted in earlier amending provision S.I. 2019/271, reg. 4(3) (31.12.2020) by The Waste (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020 (S.R. 2020/284), regs. 1(1), 4(2)

F32Reg. 2A(4) omitted in earlier amending provision S.I. 2019/271, reg. 4(3) (31.12.2020) by virtue of The Waste (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020 (S.R. 2020/284), regs. 1(1), 4(4)(a)(ii)

[F29Modifications to the Waste DirectiveN.I.

2B.—(1) For the purposes of these Regulations, the Waste Directive is to be read in accordance with this regulation.

(2) A reference to one or more member States in a provision imposing an obligation or conferring a discretion on a member State or member States is to be read as a reference to the appropriate authority or local authority which, immediately before [F30IP completion day] , was responsible for the United Kingdom's compliance with that obligation or able to exercise that discretion in Northern Ireland.

[F33(3) Article 5 is to read as if––

(a)in paragraph 1, the words “Member States shall take appropriate measures to ensure that” were omitted;

(b)after paragraph 1 there were inserted—

“1A.  Any decision as to whether a substance or object is a by-product must be made—

(a)in accordance with any regulations setting out detailed criteria on the application of the conditions in paragraph 1 to specific substances or objects; and

(b)having regard to any guidance published by the appropriate authority for the purposes of this Article.”;

(c)paragraphs 2 and 3 were omitted.

(4) Article 6 is to be read as if––

(a)in paragraph 1, the words “Member States shall take appropriate measures to ensure that” were omitted;

(b)after paragraph 1 there were inserted—

“1A.  Any decision as to whether a substance or object has ceased to be waste must be made—

(a)in accordance with any regulations or retained direct EU legislation setting out detailed criteria on the application of the conditions in paragraph 1 to specific types of waste; and

(b)having regard to any guidance published by the appropriate authority for the purposes of this Article.”;

(c)in paragraph 2––

(i)the first sub-paragraph were omitted;

(ii)in the second subparagraph, for the words “Those detailed criteria” there were substituted “Any detailed criteria set out in guidance as referred to in paragraph 1A”;

(iii)the third and fourth subparagraphs were omitted;

(d)paragraph 3 were omitted;

(e)in paragraph 4––

(i)in the first sub-paragraph––

(aa)in the first sentence, for the words from the beginning to “Member State”, there were substituted “Where criteria have not been set out as referred to in paragraph 1A(a), the appropriate authority”;

(bb)the second sentence were omitted;

(ii)in the second sub-paragraph—

(aa)for the words “Member States” there were substituted “The appropriate authority”;

(bb)“by competent authorities” were omitted.]]

Textual Amendments

F30Words in reg. 2A substituted in earlier amending provision S.I. 2019/271, reg. 4(3) (31.12.2020) by The Waste (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020 (S.R. 2020/284), regs. 1(1), 4(2)

Exclusion of charities from producer responsibility obligationsN.I.

3.  Parts II, III and IV of these Regulations do not apply to a charity within the meaning given in section 506 of the Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988(8).

Commencement Information

I3Reg. 3 in operation at 5.4.2007, see reg. 1(1)

Back to top

Options/Help

Print Options

Close

Legislation is available in different versions:

Latest Available (revised):The latest available updated version of the legislation incorporating changes made by subsequent legislation and applied by our editorial team. Changes we have not yet applied to the text, can be found in the ‘Changes to Legislation’ area.

Original (As Enacted or Made): The original version of the legislation as it stood when it was enacted or made. No changes have been applied to the text.

Point in Time: This becomes available after navigating to view revised legislation as it stood at a certain point in time via Advanced Features > Show Timeline of Changes or via a point in time advanced search.

Close

See additional information alongside the content

Geographical Extent: Indicates the geographical area that this provision applies to. For further information see ‘Frequently Asked Questions’.

Show Timeline of Changes: See how this legislation has or could change over time. Turning this feature on will show extra navigation options to go to these specific points in time. Return to the latest available version by using the controls above in the What Version box.

Close

Opening Options

Different options to open legislation in order to view more content on screen at once

Close

More Resources

Access essential accompanying documents and information for this legislation item from this tab. Dependent on the legislation item being viewed this may include:

  • the original print PDF of the as enacted version that was used for the print copy
  • lists of changes made by and/or affecting this legislation item
  • confers power and blanket amendment details
  • all formats of all associated documents
  • correction slips
  • links to related legislation and further information resources
Close

Timeline of Changes

This timeline shows the different points in time where a change occurred. The dates will coincide with the earliest date on which the change (e.g an insertion, a repeal or a substitution) that was applied came into force. The first date in the timeline will usually be the earliest date when the provision came into force. In some cases the first date is 01/02/1991 (or for Northern Ireland legislation 01/01/2006). This date is our basedate. No versions before this date are available. For further information see the Editorial Practice Guide and Glossary under Help.

Close

More Resources

Use this menu to access essential accompanying documents and information for this legislation item. Dependent on the legislation item being viewed this may include:

  • the original print PDF of the as made version that was used for the print copy
  • correction slips

Click 'View More' or select 'More Resources' tab for additional information including:

  • lists of changes made by and/or affecting this legislation item
  • confers power and blanket amendment details
  • all formats of all associated documents
  • links to related legislation and further information resources