UK regulators have issued regulatory position statements allowing producers and compliance schemes to fall short of statutory recycling obligations for plastic, steel and wood in the 2026 compliance year without normally facing enforcement action, after tighter accreditation and enforcement rules reduced the supply of packaging recycling evidence.
The statements were issued on 9 October. They set minimum levels of compliance at 83% of the plastic obligation, 92% for steel and 90% for wood. Full compliance remains required for all other packaging materials.
The Environment Agency’s Regulatory Position Statement 383 states that the statutory obligations have not been amended. Businesses that meet the RPS conditions will not normally face enforcement action for missing the original targets for the three materials, but Certificates of Compliance will still record non-compliance where the statutory obligations have not been met. Companies relying on the RPS must keep supporting records for five years, meet their full obligations for other materials and continue to comply with all other applicable requirements. The intervention applies only to 2026.
Why evidence supply tightened
According to the Foodservice Packaging Association, the intervention follows changes introduced during 2026 to strengthen the integrity of the PRN and 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. They have also reduced the number of accredited reprocessors and exporters and increased the time taken to issue PERNs, constraining the supply of recycling evidence. The department described the circumstances as exceptional and committed to reviewing recycling targets for 2027.
FPA seeks a broader review
The FPA said the need for regulators to intervene to prevent enforcement action raised “serious questions” about how the system is managed and how future targets are set. It said it fully supports efforts to eliminate fraud and error and that stronger accreditation, more rigorous verification and greater transparency are essential to confidence in the system. But it argued that if improving integrity exposes a substantial shortfall in evidence availability, the assumptions behind recycling targets should be fundamentally examined.
The association also drew a distinction between relief from enforcement and resolution of the underlying compliance problem. Because the statutory obligations remain unchanged, producers meeting the reduced thresholds may still have non-compliance recorded against them. The FPA said businesses need clarity about what this means in practice and about any wider implications.
For the 2027 review, the FPA said adjusting percentages would not be enough. It called for an assessment of whether targets are supported by demonstrable domestic and overseas recycling capacity and reliable evidence supply. It also said the review must account for the introduction of a deposit return scheme in October 2027. Under current arrangements, in-scope PET plastic bottles and aluminium and steel drinks cans collected through the scheme will no longer generate PRNs or PERNs. That will remove valuable, relatively high-quality material from the existing evidence market, even though it will continue to be recycled through the new scheme.
The delayed introduction of mandatory kerbside collections for plastic film in England, now scheduled for April 2030, adds another factor for assessing the volume of material likely to be available for recycling and PRN generation. The FPA said these assessments should be transparent and open to industry scrutiny.
Longer-term reform of the PRN and 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 financial and administrative pressure from the wider packaging reform programme and should not also be exposed to unpredictable compliance costs caused by a mismatch between regulatory obligations and the evidence market. It said the test of the government’s response would be whether it delivers a more stable, credible and achievable system for 2027 and beyond.