For many producers, meeting packaging compliance obligations through the Packaging Recovery Note (PRN) system can feel like another administrative cost without visibility on where it goes. It is not an unfair complaint, but the system does play an important role in funding UK recycling infrastructure and public education.
So what does that look like in practice? For aluminium, the PRN has helped beverage can recyclers like Novelis keep materials in circulation by growing our ability to do more aluminium can-to-can recycling. At our site Novelis Latchford in Warrington, that investment, alongside private and government funding, is now visible in the shape of our new building that will double our capacity. Additional domestic capacity will help to keep more used beverage cans in the UK and reduce the need to export scrap for recycling.
Picker Pals
Although, infrastructure is only half the story. PRN-supported investment also reaches directly into local authority and community programmes designed to improve public recycling behaviour and participation.
Take MetalMatters, for example. We have been long-term supporters of the scheme, which has reached over 7 million households across more than 100 local authority areas and helped to lift metal packaging recycling rates. Providing a direct, measurable improvement in household recycling performance.
Picker Pals
Then there's Every Can Counts, which both educates and partners with people and organisations to communicate the benefits of recycling drinks cans and improve out-of-home can recycling facilities. Whether that’s at festivals, parks or shopping centres, Every Can Counts tries to make it easier for people to recycle their drink cans wherever they are.
And it's not just about adults putting the right things in the right bin. We're particularly proud of our recent partnership with Picker Pals, a programme for 6 to 9 year olds that combines environmental stewardship and litter-picking adventures in local communities. Each participating classroom gets a special "Picker Pack" filled with child-safe gloves, pickers and collection bags, so that the children can litter-pick in their local area with a family member, supported by story and activity books, videos and live events throughout the year.
Since 2019, Picker Pals has engaged over 168,000 children across more than 7,000 classrooms, delivered 4.1 million hours of environmental learning, and removed over 1,092 tonnes of litter from communities across the UK and Ireland. The programme has been delivered by schools, giving partners confidence in its reliability and impact.
Although the PRN system is not perfect, it is helping to build domestic infrastructure, real capacity, and real community outcomes, not simply a fee paid and forgotten. Compliance and circularity aren't opposites. Done well, one builds the other.
