Natural Resources Wales
If you are a large organisation that is required to report packaging under extended producer responsibility (EPR), you will need to assess whether your packaging is household packaging or non-household packaging.
This guidance explains how to assess household and non-household packaging, and what evidence you must collect and keep if youre reporting any primary or shipment packaging as non-household packaging.
These rules are for data you collect and submit from 2024 onwards. For data from 2023, follow the guidance in what to collect for extended producer responsibility.
This is joint guidance issued by the Environment Agency, Natural Resources Wales, Northern Ireland Environment Agency and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, and will be updated from time to time.
What counts as household and non-household packaging
You must class the following as non-household:
- secondary packaging
- tertiary packaging
You must class the following packaging as household unless it meets specific conditions:
- primary packaging
- shipment packaging
When you can class primary and shipment packaging as non-household
In the following circumstances, you can class primary or shipment packaging as non-household packaging:
- you supply it to a business or public institution which is either the end user of the goods contained in the packaging, or an organisation that supplies the goods to an end user with all of the packaging removed
- you supply packaging for a product designed only for use by a business or a public institution, and the packaging is not reasonably likely to be disposed of in a household bin or a public bin.
- you are an importer and import packaging into the UK which you discard without supplying it to anyone in the UK
You need to be able to show sufficient evidence for this. If you cannot, you must class this packaging as household.You must keep this evidence for at least 7 years.
If you determine that you supply household packaging, you should then assess whether the packaging meets the requirements of packaging that commonly ends up in public bins.
Packaging supplied directly to a business or public institution end user
If you supply primary or shipment packaging to a business or public institution that is the end user of the packaging, you may report this as non-household where you can provide sufficient evidence that the business or public institution does not supply the packaging to anyone else.
Within EPR, the following are considered to be public institutions:
- a school, university or other educational establishment
- a hospital or the practice of a general medical practitioner or dentist
- a nursing home or other residential home
- a government department
- a relevant authority
- a court
- a person appointed by or under any enactment to discharge public functions
- a charity or other not-for-profit body
- a penal institution.
If you supply primary or shipment packaging to a business or public institution that supplies it on to someone else, with any packaging included, you must report this as household packaging unless the packaging meets the additional requirements for packaging not supplied directly to a business or public institution end user.
Example of packaging supplied directly to a business or public institution
A producer supplies food ingredients to a restaurant that disposes of the packaging before serving the food to its customers.
The restaurant is a business and does not supply the packaging onwards. If the producer can provide satisfactory evidence of this, the packaging can be classified as non-household packaging.
There are more examples at the end of this guide.
Packaging not supplied directly to a business or public institution end user
If you have supplied primary or shipment packaging to a business or public institution but they are not the end user, for example the packaging was supplied to a wholesaler who will supply this packaging onwards, you may be able to classify it as non-household packaging if the packaging is both:
- for a product designed for use by a business or a public institution only
- not likely to be disposed of in a household or public bin.
If primary or shipment packaging meets one of the conditions but not both, it must be reported as household packaging.
Packaging for a product designed for use by a business or public institution only
You must assess the design, specification, attributes and functions of the product variant specific to the end user to decide whether it is designed only for use by a business or a public institution.
When making this determination, factors may include:
- durability, construction and material specification
- size, weight, quantity and volume
- where relevant, the power supply and voltage
- whether the supply, use or disposal of the product is subject to any restrictions imposed by or under primary or secondary legislation, e.g. legal requirement for a professional, qualified or authorised person to exclusively use the product
- ability to use the product without specialist business or industrial equipment and knowledge
- how available a product is to consumers - if a product is designed to be supplied through distribution channels only available to businesses or public institutions this could support your assessment that the packaging is non-household
Packaging on products available to both households and businesses and public institutions must be reported as household packaging unless the packaging is supplied directly to a business or public institution who is the final user of the packaging and can be satisfactorily evidenced.
The assessment should only consider the products normal intended use and user. Where in exceptional circumstances, a householder buys a product designed for business or public institution use only, this does not mean that the packaging is not designed for business or public institution use only. This should be assessed on a case-by-case basis as to whether it is reasonably foreseeable consumer behaviour.
Primary and shipment packaging on products that are designed for both businesses and public institutions, and household consumers, cannot meet the requirement that it is designed only for use by a business or a public institution. If the packaging is supplied directly to a business or public institution who is the final user of the packaging, and this can be satisfactorily evidenced, the packaging can be classified as non-household.
Packaging around electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) that is classified as business to business (B2B) meets the requirements of being packaging for a product that is designed only for use by a business or public institution - if the packaging is also not likely to be disposed of in a household or public bin and this this evidenced, it may be reported as non-household. Read the guidance on how to correctly identify business to consumer (B2B) EEE and WEEE for more information.
For unfilled packaging used for a product that is designed for business or public institution use only, the supplier of that packaging must retain satisfactory evidence that the packaging is or will be used for that purpose.
Example: packaging for a product used by households and non-households
Packaging for printers designed for both household and non-household use, that are not supplied dir