2025 Extended Producer Responsibility Base Fees Confirmed, Giving Producers Clarity

The Government has issued the base fees for Year 1 (2025 to 2026) of the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for packaging scheme, providing certainty to packaging producers ahead of the first invoices being issued in October 2025.

These fees apply across the four administrations of the United Kingdom and have been calculated using packaging tonnages reported by producers for 2024, as well as local authority waste management costs.

The rates are as follows:

* ‘Other’ includes any materials not listed in table. For example, bamboo, ceramic, copper, cork, hemp, rubber.

Alongside the confirmed base fees, the Scheme Administrator, PackUK, has published a Modulation Policy Statement. This outlines how fees will be adjusted from 2026 onwards to incentivise the use of more recyclable packaging. These adjustments will be based on the results of the Recyclability Assessment Methodology, which must be undertaken by liable producers supplying household packaging.

However, in response to industry feedback about the time and resource demands of the 2025 recyclability assessment, the UK’s four environmental regulators have issued a regulatory position statement. This confirms that PackUK will use producers’ H2 2025 recyclability assessment reports to gather sufficient information for the entire 2025 reporting year, reducing the immediate administrative burden on organisations.

Next Steps

Producers should familiarise themselves with the published base fees and ensure they are on track to complete their recyclability assessments for H2 2025. This will be essential for compliance and for preparing for the modulated fees from 2026. Producers should familiarise themselves with the published base fees and ensure they are on track to complete their recyclability assessments for H2 2025. This will be essential for compliance and for preparing for the modulated fees from 2026.

PackUK will be holding a Base Fees themed webinar on Thursday 10 July 2025 – you can sign-up to register your attendance.

Author

Andrew Pearson

Policy Manager, AIC

Email:

[email protected]

Phone:

07464 540421

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