SPI Trackers: Packaging Regulation, Brand Target and EPR Fee Data

The three SPI Trackers at a glance

SPI Regulation Tracker: packaging laws by country

The SPI Regulation Tracker records packaging rules made by public authorities: laws, regulations, decrees and the official schemes under them. A rule is one obligation, or a closely linked set, with its own dates, so a large law can appear as several rows. The PPWR, for example, is tracked obligation by obligation, from PFAS limits in food-contact packaging (PR-EU-002) to the 2030 format restrictions in Annex V (PR-EU-008).

What kinds of rule it covers

• EPR (extended producer responsibility) makes the company that places packaging on a market pay for its collection and recycling, usually through a producer responsibility organisation (PRO): 25 rules, from Germany’s VerpackDG (PR-DE-001) to California SB 54 (PR-US-004) and Vietnam’s Decree 110/2026/ND-CP (PR-VN-001).
• Bans remove formats or materials from sale: 17 rules, including the EU ban on single-use plastic cutlery, plates, straws and EPS food containers since 3 July 2021 (PR-EU-014).
• Deposit return schemes charge a refundable deposit on drinks containers: 7 rules, from Ireland and Portugal to the UK schemes starting on 1 October 2027.
• Design rules (6) and recycled content rules (6) set requirements on the pack itself, such as the PPWR 50% maximum empty space (PR-EU-009) and 30% recycled content in single-use plastic beverage bottles from 2030 (PR-EU-004).
• Taxes (4), labelling (3), reuse (3), plans (4), reporting (1) and other (3) complete the set.

Statuses: what applies now and what is coming

Each rule carries a status set from the official record. In force means the obligation applies now; adopted means it is law but starts later or cannot yet be enforced; proposed means it is not yet law; expired means repealed or past its date. On 13 October 2026 the tracker held 60 rules in force, 13 adopted and 4 proposed. Status definitions are on the SPI Methodology page.

The adopted rules are where planning pays off, because their dates have not yet arrived. Most of them cluster between late 2027 and 1 January 2030.

How to use it

Filter by search term, type, material, status, jurisdiction, enacted or proposed, and checking (Verified or Sourced). Each jurisdiction has its own page, such as European Union, United States, United Kingdom and India. Each rule has its own page with an SPI note covering what it means in practice, who is in scope, what to do by when, related rules and open questions. Any filtered view downloads as CSV, and free e-mail alerts send at most one message a week, only when a rule in your chosen jurisdictions is added or changed.

SPI Buyers Database: brand owner packaging commitments

The SPI Buyers Database records the public packaging targets of 42 brand owners and retailers, 179 targets in all. A packaging target is a public commitment the company has published in its own report, filing, website or press release, recorded in the company’s wording. Most targets concern recyclability, recycled content, virgin plastic reduction and reuse; the rest cover weight reduction, deforestation-free paper and other goals.

Each target shows its deadline, the latest progress the company reports with its year, and a status: met, missed, in progress or not reported. SPI marks a target met or missed only on the company’s own reported figures. Across all 179 targets, 20 are reported met, 19 missed and 46 not yet reported (SPI Buyers Database, 13 October 2026). Detail matters: Unilever reports 57% of its plastic packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable in 2025, made up of 75% of rigids and only 15% of flexibles (Unilever Annual Report and Accounts 2025, as given in the database).

Each company has a profile at /data/packaging-buyers-database//, and the enriched layout first built for the Colgate-Palmolive profile adds company facts from filings, formats and materials, and two blocks of SPI analysis on regulatory exposure and supplier implications. The database holds no contacts, purchase volumes, suppliers or pack specifications: it is a register of public commitments, not a lead list.

SPI EPR & Plastic Tax Calculator: what packaging costs

The SPI EPR & Plastic Tax Calculator multiplies the tonnes of packaging you place on a market, by material, by each scheme’s own published rate, and adds the UK, Isle of Man or Spanish plastic packaging tax where it applies. EPR fees go to a compliance scheme to fund collection and recycling; a plastic packaging tax is a government levy on the plastic itself, usually tied to recycled content. In the UK and Spain the same pack can owe both.

The 14 markets are Austria (ARA), Belgium (Fost Plus), British Columbia (Recycle BC), Colorado and Oregon (Circular Action Alliance), France (Citeo), Ireland (Repak), Italy (CONAI), Luxembourg (Valorlux), the Netherlands (Verpact), Portugal (Sociedade Ponto Verde), Spain (Ecoembes and the plastic tax), the United Kingdom (PackUK and the Plastic Packaging Tax) and the Isle of Man (Plastic Packaging Tax).

Rates are only compared inside one currency. Across the nine euro schemes, plastic lines run from EUR 51 per tonne (CONAI’s lowest band from 1 October 2026) to EUR 4,419 per tonne (Fost Plus’s line for other plastics, including aluminium laminates and PVC). In the United States, Circular Action Alliance charges USD 551.16 per tonne for clear PET bottles in Oregon and USD 330.69 in Colorado in 2026. In the UK, illustrative PackUK plastic fees run from GBP 415 to GBP 545 per tonne by recyclability rating, and the Plastic Packaging Tax is GBP 228.82 per tonne from 1 April 2026 on components with less than 30% recycled plastic (PR-GB-001, PR-GB-003).

Two gaps are stated rather than filled: Germany and Ontario are not included, because neither publishes a public fee table. The figures you enter are not stored, and results are estimates at published rates, not a statement of what you owe.

Which SPI Tracker answers your question

How the SPI Trackers are built

All three follow the SPI Methodology. Each rule comes from an official source, each target from the company’s own report, and each rate from the scheme’s published table; each row records a short quote and the date the source was consulted. A second SPI team member checks each row before it is marked Verified, and the software does not let the person who last changed a row verify it. Sourced facts and SPI interpretation are kept in separate fields, and SPI’s reading is labelled “SPI analysis”. A weekly source check re-opens the sources behind open points, such as pending PPWR implementing acts and the SB 343 injunction, and errors are corrected and logged with their date (Corrections).

Limitations

• Not legal advice. Confirm obligations against the linked legal text and with qualified counsel or your compliance scheme.
• Coverage is growing. No tracker is complete for any market; each lists what it does not yet cover.
• Company-reported statuses. Buyer target results come from each company’s own reports, on its own bases, and SPI does not audit them.
• Estimates. Calculator results use published rates and stated assumptions; UK PackUK Year 2 fees are illustrative.
• Dates move. Where a date depends on a pending implementing act or a court case, the rule note says so.

SPI Trackers in development

Neither has a launch date yet. They will be listed on this page when their rows meet the same sourcing and second-check standard as the live SPI Trackers.

Using and citing SPI data

You may read the SPI Trackers, use the calculator, download the CSV files and quote individual rows in your own work, including reports and publications, if you cite “Strategic Packaging Insights, name of the tracker, date accessed”. A written licence is needed to republish a tracker in bulk, resell or redistribute the data, load it into a product offered to others, or access it automatically at scale; see Data Licensing. Licence terms are agreed in writing and are available on request.

From data to decision: Discover, Understand, Evaluate, Decide, Implement

The SPI Trackers cover the first three stages of the SPI model. Discover who buys what in the SPI Buyers Database; understand which rules apply in the SPI Regulation Tracker; evaluate the cost in the SPI EPR & Plastic Tax Calculator. Decide and implement are where SPI Consulting applies the same rows to one organisation’s materials, markets and SKUs. Packaging Regulatory Intelligence delivers a jurisdiction-by-material obligation map, exposure scenarios at stated rates and a deadline calendar; Packaging Market & Competitive Intelligence uses the buyer data for demand and competitor work. Prices are available on request; to discuss a question, use the enquiry form.