The SPI Team: How SPI Researches, Checks and Maintains Packaging Data

How the SPI team is organised

The team is organised around coverage, not around products. The same analysts who maintain a dataset use it in consulting work, so a question about Washington’s EPR law or a brand owner’s recycled-content target reaches someone who has read the source.

This page lists the six SPI analysts by role and area of focus only. This text describes how the work is divided and checked, so it stays accurate when people join or leave.

What each coverage area covers

How a row is made and checked

The core of the team’s work is the row: one rule, one company target or one fee rate, with its source. The SPI Methodology sets out the steps for the SPI Regulation Tracker, and the same principle runs through the other datasets.

Three rules keep this honest. Sourced facts, SPI estimates and SPI interpretation sit in separate fields and are labelled. Where there is no reliable source, the team records a gap instead of filling it. And the software, not goodwill, enforces the second check: the person who last added or changed a row cannot verify it.

What the team checks on the regulatory desk

The SPI Regulation Tracker is the dataset the team checks most often, because laws move. It holds 79 rules: 60 in force, 13 adopted, 4 proposed and 2 expired on 13 October 2026.

The 13 October 2026 record check shows why rows are re-read against their sources. In it the SPI team re-read 56 tracker records and updated 46. The updates being published include the status of Minnesota’s, Maryland’s and Washington’s EPR laws (PR-US-006, PR-US-007, PR-US-008), moving to “in force”, because their producer or PRO duties have started, and of California SB 343 (PR-US-011) to “adopted”, because a federal court preliminary injunction has blocked its enforcement since 14 July 2026 (CalRecycle, consulted 13 October 2026). The Corrections page explains each change.

What the team checks in the buyer and fee data

In the SPI Buyers Database, each of the 179 targets comes from the company’s own report or announcement, with a quote, the source link and the date consulted. Reported progress is shown only where the company has published it. Headquarters countries and end-use categories are assigned by the SPI team and are not separately sourced, and the page says so. In the SPI EPR & Plastic Tax Calculator, each rate is copied from the scheme’s or government’s own fee table with the quoted line, rates that are illustrative rather than final are flagged, and markets the team cannot source, such as Germany and Ontario, are listed as gaps.

How the team works on consulting assignments

SPI Consulting is delivered by the same team on the same data. Every assignment follows six steps from the SPI Consulting service definitions.

Work comes in four formats: a briefing (one question answered from existing SPI data, as a call and a short memo), a sprint (two to four weeks on one market or topic), a programme (six to twelve weeks across several markets or workstreams) and a retainer (ongoing monitoring with regular change notes and read-outs). Prices are given on request after a scoping call.

How the team keeps the data current

Packaging rules, fee tables and company reports change on their own timetables, so the team works to dates rather than to news. Each row shows the date its source was last consulted, which tells a reader how fresh it is without asking. When a source changes, the row is updated, sent back to “Sourced”, logged in its history and verified again by a second team member. The tracker’s list of latest changes shows rules added, changed, verified or removed, newest first, and readers who sign up for the tracker’s weekly email alerts hear about changed rules in the jurisdictions they chose.

Three kinds of date drive the team’s checking calendar: start dates written into a law (for example Washington’s 1 March 2029 market access date under PR-US-008), publication dates for fee tables (such as PackUK’s confirmed Year 2 fees, which follow later in 2026 according to the calculator’s gaps list), and the dates companies publish their annual sustainability reports. A row is checked when one of these dates passes, and again whenever a reader reports a problem.

What happens when a reader reports a problem

Reader reports are part of how the data stays current, and the team handles each one the same way. The report is logged with the row it concerns, and a member of the SPI team opens the original source the row cites, whether that is a law, a regulator’s guidance page, a scheme’s fee table or a company report. If the source supports the report, the row is corrected, its history records what changed and when, and it returns to “Sourced” until a second team member checks it before it can be marked verified. If the source does not support the report, the row stays as it is and the reader is told why, with the passage that was relied on. Either way the reader gets an answer by email.

The most useful reports name the rule ID or company, the field that looks wrong and the source that shows it. A report that links to a newer official document is usually the fastest to resolve, because the team can compare the two texts directly. Reports about fee rates are checked against the scheme’s own published table for the same year, because schemes publish their rates year by year.

What the team does not do

The team’s work is decision support from public sources. SPI does not give legal advice or legal representation, carry out certified or laboratory testing, issue certifications or audit opinions, or file with regulators on anyone’s behalf; recyclability reviews are desk reviews. The team does not invent contacts, purchase volumes, supplier relationships or packaging specifications, and gaps are reported as gaps. Where a project needs one of these services, the proposal says so.

How to reach the right person

You do not need to know who covers what. Write to sales@strategicpackaginginsights.com or use the enquiry form: each message goes to the SPI team member closest to the topic, who replies by email with a first view or a few clarifying questions. SPI aims to reply within two business days. Mention the packaging materials, the countries involved and the decision you need to make. To report an error in any SPI dataset, see Corrections.

Where the team fits in a packaging decision

SPI’s products follow the order in which packaging decisions are made: Discover (who buys what, from the SPI Buyers Database), Understand (which rules apply, from the SPI Regulation Tracker), Evaluate (what it will cost, from the SPI EPR & Plastic Tax Calculator), Decide (which option, market or asset) and Implement (a sprint, programme or retainer). The team maintains the free data behind the first three stages and works with you on the last two. About SPI gives the company details: Strategic Packaging Insights (SPI) is a trading name of SRI Consulting Group Ltd, registered in England and Wales (company no. 16581261), Suite 10 Capital House, 61 Amhurst Road, London E8 1LL.