Extended producer responsibility for packaging: register and pay the fee
Details of how organisations who are responsible under extended producer responsibility (EPR) for packaging register with the environmental regulators, and the registration fees.
If you’re obligated under EPR for packaging, you’ll have to register your organisation with the environmental regulators and pay a registration fee.
Find out if you have to collect and report packaging data.
The deadline for registration and payment is 1 April 2025.
You may have other fees and obligations under EPR for packaging. Find out about waste disposal fees and recycling obligations.
Who has to register
Organisations who are obligated under EPR for packaging must register with the environmental regulator.
Large producers and small producers, also known as ‘large and small organisations’, have to register by April 2025.
Large organisations must register for the following year by October 2025. Small organisations must register for that year by April 2026.
Find out if you are a small or large organisation.
Using a compliance scheme
You can either register yourself on the report packaging data service or join a compliance scheme.
If you register yourself, you will be responsible for registering with the environmental regulator, reporting your packaging data, getting evidence to meet your recycling obligation and submitting your certificate of compliance each year.
If you join a compliance scheme, it will register you with the environmental regulator, report your packaging data, get evidence to meet your recycling obligation and submit the certificate of compliance each year.
You do not need to register with the environmental regulator if you’re using a compliance scheme – they will register you on your behalf.
Find a registered compliance scheme
What you’ll have to pay
You will have to pay a registration fee each year.
The amount you’ll pay depends on what kind of organisation you are:
- small organisation: £1,216
- large organisation: £2,620
Find out if you are a small or large organisation.
You will have to pay an additional late fee of £332 if you register after the deadline.
If you use a compliance scheme
You’ll be charged a different fee if you use a compliance scheme:
- small organisation: £631
- large organisation: £1,685
You will also have to pay the compliance scheme. Contact your compliance scheme for details of their fees.
Groups and subsidiaries
Groups can register:
- as one group - the holding company can do this even if it is not a packaging producer
- individually by subsidiary
- as a combination of individual subsidiaries and the holding company
For subsidiaries within a group registration, each subsidiary must pay a registration fee.
The first 20 subsidiaries pay £558 each.
Subsidiaries 21 to 100 pay £140 each.
Online marketplaces
Under EPR for packaging, you’re classed as ‘owning an online marketplace’ if you operate a website or app that allows non-UK businesses to sell their goods into the UK.
Online marketplaces must pay an additional £2,579.
Deadlines for registration
You must submit your registration data by 1 April 2025.
You must have submitted all mandatory information and paid your registration fee by this date - if you do not, you will have to pay a late fee and may be subject to enforcement action,
Organisations must have an approved person accepted before submitting their first set of data. The regulators can take up to 28 days to accept an approved person request.
Before you register
Regulators will not review a registration application until you have submitted both your first set of packaging data, your registration data and paid your registration fee.
How to register an organisation
1. Create an account.
Create an online account on the ‘report packaging data’ service.
‘Report packaging data’ is the general EPR for packaging online service. Its name will be updated this year to reflect this.
2. Check what details you need to supply
To register your organisation with the regulators you’ll have to upload details about your organisation to the EPR for packaging service.
These organisation details include things like:
- address
- turnover
- packaging activities
- contact details
- the people who’ll be verifying and submitting your data
You may also need to report your organisation’s:
- brand information - if you supply goods to the UK market in packaging under your own brand
- partner information - if you’re registered as a partnership on Companies House
There is separate guidance explaining all the organisation details that you need to supply, and how to structure the information.
If you’re registering subsidiaries, there is a separate journey in the service and you will submit a separate CSV with subsidiary details. Full guidance will be published later in the year but you can see how to structure a groups and subsidiaries file.
3. Prepare your data as a CSV file: download templates
You’ll need to submit your data as a CSV file.
A CSV is a kind of simple spreadsheet. You can open and complete CSV files in any spreadsheet program.
There are templates to help you do this.
Download the template to create the CSV file for your organisation.
You can also download templates for:
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brand information - you need this if you enter a packaging activity as ‘supplied under your brand’ in the organisation details file
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partner information - you need this if you enter an organisation type of ‘partnership’ in the organisation details file
Read more about how to prepare a CSV file.
This guidance is aimed at government employees, but the sections from ‘Setting up your CSV file’ onwards contain useful general information.
4. Fill in the CSV templates
The separate guidance on organisation details explains what you must put in the templates or CSV file.
That guidance explains:
- all the information you need to supply
- any codes you must use
- which columns are mandatory, and which are not
- which information must be submitted by the deadline
Make sure your spreadsheet software saves it as a CSV - you will not be able to upload other kinds of spreadsheet file, for example Excel’s .xls or .xlsx formats.
5. Upload your organisation details
You can upload your files in the area on your dashboard called ‘registration’.
If you need to submit separate CSVs for brand details or partner details, you must do this at the same time.
6. Submit the details you have uploaded
Uploading and submitting are separate actions.
Once you’ve uploaded the files, you will then use your online account to submit them to the relevant environmental regulator.
Only people with the right account permission can submit the files.
The information you submit needs to be as accurate as reasonably possible on 1 April 2025, even if you submit earlier than that.
7. Receive confirmation of your registration fee, pay it and submit your registration application
The report packaging data service will show you how much you have to pay and how to pay.
Your payment options will depend on your environmental regulator but can include:
- online payment using GOV.UK Pay (Environment Agency only)
- card
- BACS
- cheque
After you’ve submitted your registration application
You must keep any information you’ve submitted up to date.
You need to report any changes within 28 days of them happening. Do this by submitting new files to the regulator.
You may need to pay a resubmission fee. This depends on whether you registered directly or through a compliance scheme. The fees are:
- direct registration: £714
- registration through a compliance scheme: £430
After you’ve registered
Once you’ve registered you must meet your obligations under EPR for packaging. These can include:
- paying waste disposal fees
- meeting recycling obligations by buying PRNs
- keeping your registration details up to date
Financial difficulties
Tell your environmental regulator immediately if your business has:
- a winding up order, or a resolution for voluntary wind-up
- entered insolvency, receivership or administration
If you do not comply with the regulations
Your registration as a producer can be cancelled if you:
- fail to comply with the agreed conditions
- provide false information.
You’ll get written notice before your registration is cancelled.
Get help
If you have any questions, contact your regulator or the EPR customer service team.
Environment Agency
Email: packagingproducers@environment-agency.gov.uk
Natural Resources Wales
Email: packaging@naturalresourceswales.gov.uk
Scottish Environment Protection Agency
Email: producer.responsibility@sepa.org.uk
Northern Ireland Environment Agency
Email: packaging@daera-ni.gov.uk
Defra EPR customer service
Telephone: 0300 060 0002 Monday to Friday, 8am to 4:30pm
Updates to this page
Published 27 February 2025Last updated 4 March 2025 + show all updates
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There was incorrect information in the previous edition: in the section '7. Receive confirmation of your registration fee' instead of registration fees it listed resubmission fees. They have been moved to the section on resubmission. A link to guidance about fees and recycling obligations has also been added.
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First published.