Extended producer responsibility (EPR) for packaging in the UK: a plain-English guide

Extended producer responsibility (EPR) for packaging means that UK businesses who supply packaging now pay for what happens to it once it's thrown away. If your business supplies or imports more than 25 tonnes of packaging a year and turns over £1 million or more, you probably have to register, report your packaging data, and, if you're large enough, pay fees towards the cost of collecting and recycling household packaging waste.

That's the short version. The rest of this guide explains who counts as a producer, what small and large producers have to do, when the deadlines fall, how the fees work, and what data you'll need. It's written for the people who actually have to deal with it, not for lawyers.

Last checked against GOV.UK guidance on 22 October 2026. The rules change, so always confirm the details on GOV.UK before you act.

What EPR means

Before EPR, councils paid most of the cost of collecting and dealing with household packaging waste. EPR moves that cost onto the businesses that put the packaging on the market in the first place. The idea is simple: if you pay for your packaging's end of life, you have a reason to use less of it and make it easier to recycle.

The UK's packaging EPR rules apply across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and they've been coming in stages over the last few years. Each nation's environmental regulator handles registration and enforcement. PackUK, the scheme administrator, works out and collects the fees.

Does EPR apply to your business?

You're likely to be an obligated producer if all three of these are true:

1. Your business is established in the UK (your registered office, head office or main place of business is here).
2. You supplied or imported more than 25 tonnes of packaging in the UK in the previous calendar year.
3. Your annual turnover is £1 million or more.

If you're obligated, your size decides what you have to do:

Packaging handled a year	Turnover £1m to £2m	Turnover over £2m
25 to 50 tonnes	Small producer	Small producer
Over 50 tonnes	Small producer	Large producer

Under 25 tonnes, or under £1 million turnover, and you have no obligation.

When you work out your tonnage, count the packaging from the previous calendar year. For 2026 obligations, that means packaging supplied or imported between 1 January and 31 December 2025.

Who counts as a "producer"?

You don't have to manufacture packaging to be a producer. What matters is what you do with it. GOV.UK lists these packaging activities:

• Own-brand supplier: you supply filled packaging under your own brand.
• Packer or filler: you pack goods or fill packaging.
• Importer: you import goods that come in packaging.
• Unfilled packaging supplier: you make or import empty packaging and supply it to others.
• Hirer or lender of reusable packaging: you hire out or loan packaging that gets reused.
• Online marketplace owner: you run a marketplace where packaging from outside the UK is supplied in the UK.
• Seller: you sell filled packaging to the consumer or business that uses it.

A business can do several of these at once. You might also still be the producer when another company packs, imports or sells your branded goods for you, for example under a licence. If you're not sure where the obligation sits, that's the first thing to settle, because it decides whose data goes in which report.

What small and large producers have to do

	Small producer	Large producer
Register with your environmental regulator	Yes	Yes, every year
Report packaging data	Once a year	Every six months
Pay PackUK fees for household packaging	No	Yes
Buy recycling evidence (PRNs or PERNs)	No	Yes
Submit a certificate of compliance	No	Yes, every year
Keep your packaging records	7 years	7 years

PRNs and PERNs are packaging waste recycling notes. They're evidence that a certain tonnage of packaging has been recycled, and large producers have to acquire enough of them to meet their recycling obligations each year. Many businesses use a compliance scheme to handle registration, recycling evidence and paperwork for them.

EPR deadlines for 2026 and 2027

Packaging data is reported through the government's online service, using a packaging data file in a set format.

Who	Data covering	Deadline
Large producers	1 January to 30 June 2026	1 October 2026
Large producers	1 July to 31 December 2026	1 April 2027
Small producers	1 January to 31 December 2026	1 April 2027

So if you're a large producer, the January to June 2026 report was due on 1 October 2026, and your next one is due on 1 April 2027. Small producers report the whole of 2026 by 1 April 2027.

Some newer parts of the data, such as self-managed waste, nation of sale, and plastic and paper bags, have their own timetables set by each nation's regulator. GOV.UK keeps an up-to-date list on its reporting periods and deadlines page.

How EPR fees work

Only large producers pay waste management fees to PackUK, and the fees cover household packaging. How much you pay depends on two things:

• How much packaging you place on the market, by weight and by material (plastic, paper and card, glass, aluminium, steel, wood, and so on).
• How recyclable it is. Packaging is rated green, amber or red using a recyclability assessment. Red-rated packaging, the kind that can't currently be recycled at scale, costs more. Green-rated packaging costs less.

That second part is the one to watch, because it's the part you can change. The same tonnage can cost more if it's hard to recycle. Fee rates are published by PackUK and confirmed each year, so use their current figures rather than estimates you've seen elsewhere.

The practical upshot: accurate packaging data saves money. If your weights are rough estimates, or your materials are recorded loosely, you could be paying for packaging you don't place on the market, or rating packaging as red when it isn't.

What data you'll need

This is where most of the work is. For each reporting period, you need to know:

• What you supplied: every product or packaging item, and how many units went out.
• What the packaging weighs and is made of, broken down by component. A bottle, its cap and its label are three different pieces of packaging.
• The packaging type and activity, such as household or non-household, primary or shipment packaging, and which of the producer activities applies.
• Where it went, because who the end user is affects who's responsible and whether fees apply.

In most businesses this information is spread around. Sales volumes sit in the ERP or accounts system. Weights and materials live on spec sheets, some of them years old. Supplier data arrives as PDFs. Pulling it together by hand each period is what turns EPR into weeks of work.

We wrote about how manufacturers get that time back in EPR reporting: how to stop it eating your weeks.

Common mistakes

• Counting the wrong year. Your obligation is based on the previous year's packaging, not the current one.
• Missing a producer activity. Businesses often register for the obvious activity and forget, for example, that they also import some packaged goods.
• Treating weights as fixed forever. Packaging changes. If your spec sheets aren't kept up to date, your data drifts.
• Leaving it until the deadline. If the data is gathered by hand at the last minute, mistakes get through. A process that collects it as you go is easier and more accurate.
• Assuming labelling rules are settled. Plans for mandatory "recycle" and "do not recycle" labels have changed more than once. Check the latest GOV.UK position before you change any artwork.

Making EPR less painful

None of this is going away, and the reporting comes round every six months for larger producers. The businesses that cope best treat it as a data job, not a compliance scramble:

1. Keep one up-to-date list of every product's packaging components, weights and materials.
2. Pull sales volumes straight from your systems each period instead of exporting and pasting.
3. Let a tool do the maths and flag the gaps, and keep your team for checking and sign-off.

That's exactly what we build. One UK packaging manufacturer we work with now saves around six weeks a year on EPR reporting this way. If you'd like to see how much of your report could run on its own, have a look at EPR reporting automation or book a free 30-minute call.

Common questions

What does EPR stand for?

Extended producer responsibility. It's a policy approach that makes the businesses who put products and packaging on the market responsible for what happens to them at the end of their life.

Is EPR the same as Plastic Packaging Tax?

No. Plastic Packaging Tax is a separate HMRC tax on plastic packaging that doesn't contain enough recycled plastic. EPR covers all packaging materials and is run by the environmental regulators and PackUK. The two use similar data, though, so it's worth keeping one accurate packaging dataset for both.

Do I have to join a compliance scheme?

No, but many businesses do. A compliance scheme can register you, buy recycling evidence and handle much of the paperwork. You're still responsible for the accuracy of the packaging data you give them.

What if I'm under the thresholds?

If you handled less than 25 tonnes of packaging or turned over less than £1 million, you don't have EPR obligations as a producer. Check again each year, because growth can tip you over.

Who checks that businesses comply?

The environmental regulator for each nation: the Environment Agency in England, SEPA in Scotland, Natural Resources Wales, and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency.

Where can I find the official guidance?

Start with GOV.UK's guide to who is affected and what to do, and the reporting periods and deadlines page.

If you make or supply packaging and want help with the data side, see how we work with packaging manufacturers.