Container Approval Application Fees Cap

MARK GIFFORD PSM
13/02/2018
Environment Protection Authority

I am writing to advise of a recent change to the fee structure for fees paid to the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) for beverage containers registered for approval under the NSW container deposit scheme, Return and Earn. These changes are designed to benefit small suppliers that produce small runs of multiple product lines.

How does the fee cap apply?

Small suppliers are now only required to pay the $80 fee for each of the first 40 applications they submit to the EPA each financial year. This represents a saving of $80 on each application after the 40th application. If you are a small supplier and have already paid for 41 or more applications for the financial year 2017-2018, you can apply for a refund of the excess amount you paid from the EPA.

What is a small supplier?

For the purposes of the fee cap, a small supplier is one that supplies up to 2.5 million beverage containers in the previous financial year. For example, a business that supplied up to 2.5 million containers in the 2016-2017 financial year would be a small supplier and be entitled to the cap for the 2017-2018 financial year. Similarly, suppliers that supplied up to 2.5 million containers in 2017-18 will receive the same fee relief in 2018-19.

Details of the application process are attached. If you have any questions about the fee cap, please email your questions to container.approval@epa.nsw.gov.au.

How to apply for the cap

Registered Suppliers

For suppliers who are already registered through the Return and Earn Container Portal and satisfy the criteria for the current financial year, please provide the following information by email to container.approval@epa.nsw.gov.au with “Application fee cap” in the subject line:

1. Account name

2. Bank account details (BSB and account number)

3. Customer Number

4. Contact person information (name, role, email, phone number)

1. 5. Which of the following two situations apply to you: a. You have already paid for more than 40 container approvals and you are seeking a refund of the fees you have paid above $3,200 (you may or may not register more containers this financial year).
2. b. You have not yet, but expect to or will, apply for more than 40 container approvals over the course of the financial year 2017-18.

1. 6. A NSW statutory declaration that declares the number of beverage containers your business supplied in total, i.e. within and outside of Australia, in the financial year 1 July 2016 to 30 June 2017. If you are unable to provide an exact total, please indicate if the number of supplied containers falls within the following ranges: • Between 2.5 – 2 million
2. • Between 2 – 1.5 million
3. • Between 1.5 – 1 million
4. • Fewer than 1 million

Where the applicant is a body corporate, the statutory declaration should be provided by the Managing Director or CEO or equivalent.

If your application is accepted, the EPA will send you an email confirming that the cap will apply for financial year 2017-18.

To obtain the benefit of the cap on an ongoing basis, you will need to follow this process to reapply for the cap for each subsequent financial year in which your business will make more than 40 container approval applications.

Registration of containers where cap applies

If the EPA has confirmed that the cap applies to you for a financial year, please use the bulk upload process set out in sections 3.8 to 3.12 of the Return and Earn Approval portal: User guide for suppliers (PDF 1.9MB) to register your containers for approval.

Please use the bulk upload process even if you are registering less than 10 container approvals. This will help us ensure that the cap applies to your applications.

Unregistered suppliers

For suppliers who are not yet registered with the Return and Earn Container Portal and will meet the criteria for the cap for this financial year, please register your organisation with the Portal first following the instructions set out in the EPA website (http://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/your-environment/recycling-and-reuse/return-and-earn/role-of-first-suppliers-of-drink-containers, under “How to obtain an EPA container approval”).

Once you have successfully registered your organisation, please follow the steps detailed in the above section (“Registered suppliers”) to apply for the cap before you register any containers for approval in the Portal.