Defra and the Welsh Assembly confirmed that leased packaging, such as pallets and crates, will now be fully subject to the regulations subject to Parliamentary approval.
Ben Bradshaw, Local Environmental Quality Minister, said that the measures would spread compliance costs more equitably among businesses.
The UK has to meet new, higher recovery and recycling targets for packaging waste by 2008.
In order to meet that target, packaging laws require target levels of packaging waste recycling by all businesses that handle over 50 tonnes of packaging a year and with turnover in excess of £2 million a year.
To date the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations have succeeded in raising the recycling rate of packaging waste from around 27% in 1997 to just below 50% at the end of 2004.
Mr Bradshaw also confirmed that the some of the administrative and cost burden would be eased for smaller businesses following the proposal to simplify small businesses' data requirement.
A number of technical changes will also be adopted including the removal of the "reasonable steps" wording from the regulations.
Proposals to include packaging from franchise businesses were welcomed in consultation, but further details of the proposal are still under consideration in a later consultation, the outcome of which will be known shortly.
