Table of Contents
- Current EPR Fee Rates (2025-2026)
- How to Calculate Your EPR Fees
- Worked Examples by Business Type
- What Changes in 2026-2027?
- Fee Modulation and Recyclability
- Practical Ways to Reduce Your EPR Fees
- Using Our Platform to Track Fees
Current EPR Fee Rates (2025-2026)
The confirmed EPR base fee rates for Year 1 (2025-2026) are charged per tonne of packaging, varying by material type:
| Material | Fee per Tonne | Typical Uses |
|---|---|---|
| Glass | £192 | Bottles, jars |
| Paper and card | £196 | Cardboard boxes, cartons, labels |
| Steel | £259 | Food tins, metal closures |
| Other | £259 | Mixed or unclassified materials |
| Aluminium | £266 | Drinks cans, foil trays |
| Wood | £280 | Pallets, crates |
| Plastic | £423 | Polybags, bottles, trays, film |
| Fibre-based composite | £461 | Tetrapak-style cartons, coffee cups |
These fees cover the full net cost of managing each packaging material, including collection from households, sorting at materials recovery facilities, recycling, and disposal of non-recyclable fractions. The rates are set out in DEFRA’s official EPR guidance.
For a detailed breakdown of what each rate covers, read our EPR fees by material type guide.
How to Calculate Your EPR Fees
The calculation is straightforward in principle:
Total EPR fees = Sum of (weight in tonnes x fee rate per tonne) for each material type
Here is a step-by-step process:
- Inventory all packaging your business handles, supplies, or imports
- Weigh each packaging type — use supplier spec sheets, sample weighing, or batch averages (see our weighing guide)
- Classify by material — assign each item to one of DEFRA’s eight material categories
- Calculate total tonnage per material type across the reporting period
- Multiply by the fee rate for each material
- Sum all materials for your total annual EPR fee obligation
Worked Examples by Business Type
Example 1: Small E-commerce Business
An online fashion retailer (small producer) handling:
| Packaging | Material | Annual Weight | Fee Rate | Annual Fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cardboard shipping boxes | Paper/card | 15 tonnes | £196 | £2,940 |
| Poly mailer bags | Plastic | 3 tonnes | £423 | £1,269 |
| Tissue paper | Paper/card | 1 tonne | £196 | £196 |
| Packing tape | Plastic | 0.2 tonnes | £423 | £85 |
Total estimated annual EPR fees: £4,490
Example 2: Mid-Size Food Manufacturer
A food producer (large producer) handling:
| Packaging | Material | Annual Weight | Fee Rate | Annual Fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glass jars | Glass | 40 tonnes | £192 | £7,680 |
| Cardboard cases | Paper/card | 25 tonnes | £196 | £4,900 |
| Plastic trays | Plastic | 12 tonnes | £423 | £5,076 |
| Steel cans | Steel | 8 tonnes | £259 | £2,072 |
| Film lids | Plastic | 2 tonnes | £423 | £846 |
Total estimated annual EPR fees: £20,574
Example 3: Beauty Brand Importing Products
A cosmetics company (large producer) importing from overseas:
| Packaging | Material | Annual Weight | Fee Rate | Annual Fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glass perfume bottles | Glass | 25 tonnes | £192 | £4,800 |
| Plastic tubes and pumps | Plastic | 8 tonnes | £423 | £3,384 |
| Outer cartons | Paper/card | 10 tonnes | £196 | £1,960 |
| Cellophane wrapping | Plastic | 1.5 tonnes | £423 | £635 |
| Aluminium components | Aluminium | 2 tonnes | £266 | £532 |
Total estimated annual EPR fees: £11,311
What Changes in 2026-2027?
The 2025-2026 fees are base rates — flat charges per tonne regardless of how recyclable your specific packaging is. From Year 2 (2026-2027) onwards, fees will be modulated based on the recyclability of each packaging item.
DEFRA’s Recyclability Assessment Methodology (RAM), detailed in the government consultation on EPR, will assess every packaging format against criteria including:
- Whether collection infrastructure exists in the UK
- Whether sorting technology can identify and separate the material
- Whether recycling processes exist to handle the material
- Whether viable end markets exist for the recycled output
Packaging that scores well on the RAM assessment will receive lower fees. Packaging that is hard to recycle will attract significantly higher charges.
The exact modulated rates for 2026-2027 have not yet been confirmed, but DEFRA has indicated that the gap between easily recyclable and hard-to-recycle packaging could be substantial.
Fee Modulation and Recyclability
Understanding fee modulation is critical for future cost planning. Here are some packaging types likely to be affected:
Likely Lower Fees (Easily Recyclable)
- Clear PET bottles and trays
- Standard corrugated cardboard
- Glass bottles and jars
- Steel and aluminium cans
- Mono-material paper packaging
Likely Higher Fees (Hard to Recycle)
- Black plastic trays (undetectable by sorting equipment)
- Multi-layer flexible films (crisp packets, pouches)
- Fibre-based composite packaging (coffee cups, Tetrapak)
- Multi-material packaging with non-separable components
- PVC packaging
For more detail on modulated fees, read our EPR modulated fees guide.
Practical Ways to Reduce Your EPR Fees
There are concrete steps you can take to reduce your packaging EPR costs:
1. Switch Materials Where Possible
Plastic packaging costs more than double the rate of paper/card (£423 vs £196 per tonne). Where product protection and shelf life allow, switching from plastic to paper-based alternatives can cut EPR costs significantly.
2. Reduce Overall Packaging Weight
Lightweighting your packaging — using thinner materials, smaller boxes, or less void fill — directly reduces your reported tonnage and fees. An e-commerce business that right-sizes its boxes could cut void fill requirements by 30-50%.
3. Move to Mono-Materials
Multi-material packaging will attract higher modulated fees from 2026-2027. Transitioning to mono-material alternatives (e.g., all-paper mailer bags instead of plastic-lined ones) will position you for lower fees when modulation kicks in.
4. Optimise Your Supply Chain
Work with suppliers to reduce unnecessary transit packaging. If products arrive over-packaged from manufacturers, negotiate packaging specifications that meet protection requirements without excess.
5. Track Data Accurately
Under-reporting is a compliance risk, but over-reporting costs you money. Accurate weighing and data entry ensures you pay exactly what you owe — not more. Our platform’s guided data entry helps prevent both over and under-reporting.
Using Our Platform to Track Fees
Our built-in obligation calculator uses the confirmed 2025-2026 fee rates to give you real-time fee estimates as you enter your packaging data. You can:
- See your estimated fees update live as you add packaging entries
- Compare materials to understand which packaging types cost the most
- Model scenarios — what if you switched 5 tonnes of plastic to paper?
- Export reports with fee calculations included for budget planning
The calculator shows both your current fees and highlights where you could save by adjusting packaging choices. Pair it with our compliance deadline tracker to stay on top of submission dates.
Common Fee Calculation Mistakes
Accurate fee calculations depend on accurate data. Here are the most common mistakes businesses make when estimating their EPR costs — and how to avoid them.
Mistake 1: Forgetting Component Packaging
Many businesses report the main packaging item but forget the smaller components. A glass bottle of olive oil has a glass body, a metal cap, a paper label, and possibly a plastic pour spout. Forgetting the cap and label might seem trivial, but across 500,000 bottles per year, the metal caps alone could amount to 1.5 tonnes — adding £389 to your fees (at the steel rate of £259/tonne).
Fix: Use a component checklist for every product line. Our guide on what counts as packaging helps identify easily missed items.
Mistake 2: Using Estimated Weights Instead of Actual Weights
Guessing that a shipping box weighs “about 300g” when it actually weighs 380g creates a 27% error across your entire order volume. For a business shipping 200,000 orders per year, that is a discrepancy of 16 tonnes — representing £3,136 in misreported fees.
Fix: Weigh a sample of each packaging type on a precision scale and use the actual measured weight. Our weighing guide explains the methodology in detail.
Mistake 3: Misclassifying Materials
Reporting “cardboard” when the actual material is a fibre-based composite (such as a waxed cardboard food container) means applying the wrong fee rate. Paper and card is £196/tonne, but fibre-based composite is £461/tonne — a difference of £265 per tonne. Check DEFRA’s material classification guidance for borderline items.
Mistake 4: Excluding Transit Packaging
Businesses often focus on consumer-facing packaging and forget transit packaging — pallets, pallet wrap, corrugated shipping cases, strapping, and edge protectors. For manufacturers and distributors, transit packaging can represent a significant proportion of total tonnage.
Mistake 5: Not Accounting for Seasonal Variation
If your business has a peak season (Christmas, summer, back-to-school), your packaging volumes during those periods may be significantly higher than average. Using a flat monthly average will underestimate your total annual tonnage. Track packaging volumes by month or quarter to capture seasonal spikes accurately.
Budgeting and Financial Planning for EPR Fees
EPR fees represent a new cost line for many businesses. Integrating them into your financial planning requires forward-looking analysis.
Building EPR Into Product Costing
For each product line, calculate the EPR fee per unit:
Example: A candle sold in a glass jar with a cardboard box and cellophane wrap:
| Component | Material | Weight | Fee Rate | Fee per Unit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glass jar | Glass | 200g | £192/t | 3.84p |
| Cardboard box | Paper/card | 60g | £196/t | 1.18p |
| Cellophane wrap | Plastic | 5g | £423/t | 0.21p |
| Paper label | Paper/card | 3g | £196/t | 0.06p |
| Total EPR cost per unit | 268g | 5.29p |
At 5.29p per unit, a business selling 100,000 candles per year faces £5,290 in EPR fees from this product alone. For businesses with tight margins, building this cost into product pricing or absorption planning is essential.
Year-on-Year Fee Projections
EPR fees are expected to increase over time as recycling targets rise and the full costs of managing packaging waste are captured. DEFRA reviews fee rates annually. A prudent approach is to budget for annual fee increases of 5-15%, depending on your material mix.
From 2026-2027, fee modulation will add another variable. Businesses using hard-to-recycle packaging should budget for above-average increases, while those using highly recyclable formats may see fees stabilise or decrease relative to the base rates.
Cash Flow Considerations
EPR fees are invoiced after data submission, meaning there is a lag between incurring the packaging obligation and paying the fee. For large producers, fees for H1 packaging are invoiced after the October submission, and H2 fees after the April submission. Building a fee reserve into your cash flow planning ensures you can meet payment deadlines without strain.
Check your obligation status with our free compliance checker, or browse our pricing plans to find the right plan for your business. For definitions of all fee-related terms, see our EPR glossary.
Start your free trial and get an instant estimate of your EPR fees.