The regulations require data to be submitted for a compliance year by mid-April, and although late registration is not a legal offence, it does come with a £110 fee.
Every year, the data is first published by the EA in May and typically, around 500 producers would be missing from the public register. 360 Environmental’s Phil Conran has said that this then gets “whittled down”, with the final entrants submitting data in December and January.
Although 2024 broadly mirrored previous years, fewer producers than normal submitted their data by the April deadline. Conran said he expects that this is due to also having to report EPR data this year.
This last week is said to have seen a “scandalous” jump both in the number of companies being registered and the amount of data they have submitted.
The graph shows the tonnes of obligation added to each material over the last few days, making up nearly 2% of the total.
The public register shows that on between these dates, 178 companies were registered, 153 of which are members of Valpak and 24 members of Beyondly. Many of the companies are household names, including ASDA Express, L’Oreal, Dyson and The White Company.
Another industry source has shared their thoughts on why this might be a concern: “The increasingly late submission of packaging data has been a fundamental flaw in the PRN system for several years now but 2024 has taken this, seemingly contagious problem, to new levels of tardiness.
“Late data seriously undermines the PRN market mechanism, creates unfair competitive advantage, erodes confidence in the data, prevents accurate forecasting and management of PRN price risk and creates unnecessary price volatility.
“It generates similar market distortion and false price signals to that of fraudulently issued PRNs and should be approached by the regulator with a similar level of urgency, scrutiny, and prevention.”
Does this bode well for EPR data reporting?
There is a general theme of concern among the reports, as the “success and equity” of the EPR regulations will depend on timely and accurate data in the future.
The anonymous industry source said: “Some concessions could be made for the complexity of the new reporting requirements. However, if the 2024 PRN market reflects the current attitude and approach to data submission deadlines, EPR will be fundamentally compromised from the start.”
Conran added: “Compliance schemes that register significant tonnages late in the year are at somewhat of a market advantage, as they know what will be added and can plan their PRN purchases accordingly.
“Fortunately, EPR should see this change as new rules will allow the regulators to apply significant fines for late registration under Civil Sanctions that could see penalties running into thousands of pounds. But this doesn’t diminish the frustration that whilst most of the obligated system does its best to comply, others appear to treat their obligation with disdain and can do so without penalty.”
Steve Gough, CEO, Valpak by Reconomy, told letsrecycle.com: “Valpak registers members once the data has been prepared and signed off. The businesses listed were all registered prior to the deadline for the compliance year, which closed on 31 December 2024.”
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