The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2007, which originally came into effect at the end of August 1997 in Great Britain and in 1999 in Northern Ireland, was the first producer responsibility legislation in the UK. The Packaging Waste Regulations work on the principle of Collective Producer Responsibility - enforcing producers of packaging to take responsibility for their environmental impact. The regulations require obligated producers to pay a proportion of the cost of the recovery and recycling of their packaging.