The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has released the third round of base fees for extended producer responsibility for packaging (pEPR).
Defra previously released the first round of pEPR base fees in August, which was met with scathing criticism from the glass industry.
In October, Defra published the refined figures once more data had been reported and checked by regulators because of “significant limitations” in the data used to create the original fees.
The updated illustrative base fees are for year 1 of pEPR and relates to fees that would be charged to obligated packaging producers by the Scheme Administrator. The fees are rounded to the nearest £5.
Illustrative EPR base fees for 2025 to 2026
| Material | Rate (in £ per tonne) |
|---|---|
| Aluminium | 435 |
| Fibre-based composite | 455 |
| Glass | 240 |
| Paper or board | 215 |
| Plastic | 485 |
| Steel | 305 |
| Wood | 320 |
| Other | 280 |
“Other” includes any materials not listed; for example, bamboo, ceramic, copper, cork, hemp, rubber, silicone.
The illustrative base fees use packaging tonnage data submitted to date by producers on the Report Packaging Data (RPD) online portal for the first six months of 2024,
Defra said these fees represent the best possible point estimate of base fees given currently available information.
Final fees for the first year of EPR will be released after 1 April 2025 – the deadline for reporting packaging supplied by registered producers in 2024.
Defra said that the illustrative base fees can provide further clarity to support industry but are still subject to “significant uncertainty” and will change in year 1 of EPR as more data are submitted by producers, and compliance monitored by regulators.
