Spring 2025 EPR policy round up

There have been numerous policy updates relating to packaging EPR, here’s the essentials you need to know.

Fee modulation in 2026

Defra shared in a recent ‘Joint Stakeholder Forum’ an example of how EPR fee modulation, starting in 2026, may look for the first three years. The indicative modulation rates charge packaging that is assigned as ‘red’ via the Recyclability Assessment Methodology (RAM) at a rate higher than the material base fee – 1.2 times the fee in 2026, 1.6 times in 2027, and double by 2028. The illustrative base fees per material were announced in December 2024.

As an example, the estimated base fee for plastic for this year is currently £485, meaning producers may pay around £970 per tonne for hard to recycle plastic packaging formats in a few years. Packaging formats assigned as ‘green’ will then be decreased relative to the total amount of ‘red’ packaging, to be confirmed each year, and ‘amber’ packaging will likely be invoiced at the base fee rate.

The first EPR submission that includes RAM ratings will be in October this year, meaning there will be a better understanding of the total amount of packaging assigned ‘red’ and therefore the ability to make more informed estimations of costs. Until then, alongside working towards gathering all the information needed to complete the recyclability assessments, producers should start considering moving away from hard to recycle packaging formats, to avoid annually increasing costs under the modulation system.

Changes to EPR reporting

Given the final set of 2024 packaging data has now been submitted, which was reported in line with the now revoked EPR data reporting regulations, all packaging supplied in 2025 will be reported under the ‘main’ EPR statutory instrument.

This means a few changes to the reporting rules under EPR, outlined in the Environment Agency’s latest version of their technical guidance. The changes include a redefinition of ‘drinks container’ to 150ml-3l (from 50ml), a change to the definition of shipment packaging, and a new reporting condition for brand-owners. We recommend obligated producers familiarise themselves with these changes to the reporting in time for the first submission of 2025 data, in October. Our packaging EPR guidance articles in the Ecosurety Hub website have been updated accordingly.

EPR statutory Instrument Amendments

Government have identified and drafted amendments to the EPR statutory instrument, that they are expecting to be passed by the end of this year and apply from 2026 onwards. The amendments were notified to the European Union on 23 April, and include provisions to appoint a Producer Responsibility Organisation (PRO) and to extend the scope of producer ability to offset EPR waste management fees via the ‘self-managed consumer waste’ data submission.

However, the amendments don’t include a hoped-for modification to the definition of household packaging – meaning for the foreseeable future only direct B2B sales of primary formats can be evidenced as non-household and avoid the EPR waste management fees. The amendments don’t include any provision for mandatory labelling, or additional costs to packaging reported as ‘commonly binned’ either, which may be drafted for future iterations of the regulations.