UK regulators have issued temporary enforcement relief for the 2026 compliance year after tighter accreditation and enforcement rules reduced the supply of Packaging Waste Recycling Notes (PRNs) and Packaging Waste Export Recycling Notes (PERNs). Regulatory Position Statements issued on 9 October set reduced thresholds for plastic, steel and wood, while leaving statutory recycling obligations unchanged.
Reduced thresholds for three materials
For plastic, steel and wood, regulators will not normally take enforcement action where businesses meet at least 83% of the statutory plastic recycling obligation, 92% of the steel obligation and 90% of the wood obligation. Full compliance remains required for all other packaging materials.
The Environment Agency's Regulatory Position Statement 383 makes clear that the statutory obligations have not been amended. Businesses that satisfy the RPS conditions will not normally face enforcement action for falling short of the original targets in the three affected materials, but Certificates of Compliance will still record non-compliance where statutory obligations have not been met, even if the reduced thresholds are satisfied.
Businesses relying on the RPS must retain supporting records for five years, meet their full obligations for other packaging materials and continue to comply with all other applicable requirements. The intervention applies only to the 2026 compliance year.
Why PRN supply tightened
The Foodservice Packaging Association (FPA) said the intervention follows changes introduced during 2026 to strengthen the integrity of the PRN/PERN system. These include tighter accreditation requirements for reprocessors and exporters, a new fit-and-proper-person test, increased enforcement activity and changes to export rules so that PERNs can only be issued once packaging waste reaches the overseas reprocessing facility.
Defra says the measures have improved transparency and helped tackle fraud and error, but have also reduced the number of accredited reprocessors and exporters and increased the time taken for PERNs to be issued, constraining the supply of recycling evidence. The concern was that some producers and compliance schemes could otherwise struggle to demonstrate compliance with their 2026 recycling obligations.
FPA seeks fundamental review of 2027 targets
The FPA said the need for regulators to intervene to prevent enforcement action raises serious questions about how the system is managed and how future targets are set. It supported stronger accreditation, verification and transparency, but argued that if improving integrity exposes a substantial shortfall in evidence, the assumptions behind recycling targets should be fundamentally examined.
Defra has described the circumstances as exceptional and committed to reviewing recycling targets for 2027, taking account of factors including the introduction of DRS and the delayed mandatory kerbside collection of plastic film in England, now scheduled for April 2030.
The FPA added that DRS will have a particularly significant impact. Under current arrangements, in-scope PET plastic bottles and aluminium and steel drinks cans collected through DRS will no longer generate PRNs or PERNs. That removes valuable, relatively high-quality material from the existing recycling evidence market, even though it will continue to be recycled through the new scheme, the FPA said. Unless targets and obligations reflect the change, producers could face further difficulty securing sufficient evidence.
The FPA also said the delayed introduction of mandatory kerbside collections for plastic film in England adds another consideration when assessing the volume of material likely to be available for recycling and PRN generation. It argued that the 2027 review must go beyond adjusting percentages and establish whether targets are supported by demonstrable domestic and overseas recycling capacity and reliable evidence supply. The review, it said, must account for DRS from October 2027 and the delayed plastic-film collections, and should be transparent and open to industry scrutiny.
Longer-term reform of the PRN/PERN system remains under consideration following consultation on measures intended to improve transparency, reduce fraud and create a more level playing field between UK reprocessors and exporters. The FPA said producers already face significant financial and administrative pressures from the wider packaging reform programme and should not also face unpredictable compliance costs from a mismatch between regulatory obligations and the evidence market. The test of the government's response, it said, will be whether it delivers a more stable, credible and achievable system for 2027 and beyond.