From 1 January 2026, UK packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) rules change under Statutory Instrument 2025/1369, made on 17 December 2025. For producers, fees rise, a closed‑loop offset becomes available for eligible food‑grade plastics, and mergers, acquisitions and brand transfers carry new reporting and liability duties. The amendments apply across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland with devolved consent (source: legislation.gov.uk).

EPR, in practical terms, shifts the cost of managing household packaging waste from councils to the businesses that place packaging on the market. Under the updated regulation 60, a person is liable for disposal and administration fees in an assessment year if they are a producer in that year and, in the calendar year before it, were a brand owner, packer/filler, importer or first UK owner, distributor, online marketplace operator or service provider, were a large producer, and supplied household packaging.

Charges move higher. Examples in the instrument include a rise in the headline registration fee for a stand‑alone large producer from £2,620 to £2,842, the equivalent fee via a compliance scheme to £1,803, and reprocessor registration to £3,228. Several reprocessor/exporter registration line items also increase, for example a £428 fee moves to £574, with some ancillary charges up roughly 9–34 percent. The automatic inflation uplift now starts from 2027 rather than 2026.

A new £2,548 annual charge unlocks the ability for a large producer to report closed‑loop packaging waste and use it to offset disposal fees. The same £2,548 transitional charge is payable by 28 January 2026 if a producer amends 2024/25 reports to recognise eligible closed‑loop material. If the charge is not paid, any closed‑loop tonnage reported is ignored in fee calculations under regulation 62.

Closed‑loop has a strict meaning. It must be household food‑grade plastic packaging that the same producer supplied on or after 1 January 2024, collected directly from that producer’s consumers without being mixed with other producers’ material, and sent to a single accredited reprocessor to be recycled into food‑grade plastic materials or articles. Evidence must come from an accredited reprocessor or exporter and be kept for seven years. Reporting closed‑loop without having paid the charge becomes an offence.

A simple worked example helps. A ready‑meal manufacturer that supplied 4,000 tonnes of household plastic packaging in 2025 and can evidence 300 tonnes of qualifying closed‑loop returns in a 2026 reporting period, after paying the charge, may subtract that 300 tonnes from the plastic tonnage used in the disposal‑fee formula. Where the proposed deduction would exceed the household plastic tonnage reported for the period, the regulation sets the deduction to zero.

Design choices start to influence costs more directly. The scheme administrator may modulate disposal fees by considering whether the amount of packaging used is no more than reasonably necessary to perform its function. That sits alongside the duty to calculate authority disposal costs in a way that facilitates the environmental effects set out in the Government’s EPR policy statement, encouraging light‑weighting and better recyclability over time.

Late assessments are introduced. If the scheme administrator finds a business that should have been treated as a liable producer, it can issue a retrospective assessment. Where data is missing, the administrator may estimate tonnages using the best available evidence, charge interest from the notional due date, and look back four years-extended to ten where the failure stems from non‑compliance. Expect firmer enforcement against free‑riding.

Mergers get clearer compliance rules. Under new regulation 27A, a merged company is treated as large if any merging entity was large in the merger year, must register on the earliest applicable deadline or within 28 days, and inherits ongoing data‑retention and recycling obligations for the merger year and earlier years. Unpaid disposal and administration fees carry over, while any Packaging Recovery Notes (PRNs) or Packaging Export Recovery Notes (PERNs) already obtained may be transferred to the merged entity.

Brand and business transfers are tightened. Where a brand or part of a business moves to a new owner, the transferee must inform the regulator within 28 days and register or re‑register. For the transfer year and the following two years, large‑producer status is tested on an ‘adjusted’ basis that adds the relevant proportion of the transferor’s turnover and packaging tonnage. Recycling obligations for the acquired packaging shift to the transferee.

Both parties must revisit reporting. If the transferor was a large producer, the transferor and transferee must submit or re‑submit data for the June and December reporting periods in the current year and the prior year, with packaging supplied by the transferor before completion treated as if supplied by the transferee. Fee calculations for the assessment year starting on 1 April reflect that re‑stated data, so sale agreements will need clear warranties and data sharing protocols.

Material categories are refined. ‘Paper or board’ may now include composite packs with plastic layers at or below 5 percent by mass; otherwise such items sit in the ‘fibre‑based composite’ category. For reports covering periods ending 31 December 2025, producers may elect to use either the old or the new definitions, easing the change as bills of materials are updated and lines are re‑classified.

Deposit return schemes are accounted for, cutting duplication. Packaging that is, or would be but for a low‑volume line exemption, a deposit‑scheme item is treated as exempt packaging for EPR. In the supply chain, only a seller becomes a producer on onward supply after the first producer, unless a new component (such as a label) is added. Where multiple brands appear, if none of those brand owners made the first supply, the producer is the brand with the largest share of the external surface area.

Charities and enforcement shift. Charities are excluded from producer responsibility obligations and from annual disposal and administration fees, but charities acting as reprocessors or exporters must register by 1 January 2027; offences and civil sanctions for operating unregistered are paused until then. The instrument also bans issuing duplicate PRNs or PERNs for the same packaging waste, closing off a known loophole.

Governance expands. The scheme administrator can appoint one or more not‑for‑profit Producer Responsibility Organisations (PROs) to perform specified functions, with consent from the UK administrations. Appointments may be revoked for causes including procurement‑law debarment, and continuity is protected by powers to transfer data, contracts and IT assets from an outgoing PRO to a successor.

The instrument, signed by Mary Creagh at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 17 December 2025, comes into force on 1 January 2026. Two dates matter for planning: 28 January 2026, when transitional closed‑loop charges and certain amended reports fall due, and 1 April 2026, when re‑stated data begins to flow into assessment‑year fee calculations. Build those into cash‑flow and M&A timetables now.