SPI EPR & Plastic Tax Calculator: 2026 packaging EPR fees and plastic taxes

Use the calculator

Choose the market, enter the tonnes of each material you place on it in a year, pick the fee category, and, where a plastic tax applies, enter your average recycled content. The result shows the total, a line per material, the tax line, the assumptions and any tonnes it could not cost. For France, Spain, Oregon and Colorado an optional panel adds per-unit charges, small-producer flat fees and bonus or malus rules. Table 1 below the worksheet lists every rate for that market with its source, quoted line and consulted date.

What EPR fees and plastic packaging taxes are

Extended producer responsibility (EPR) makes the companies that place packaging on a market pay for collecting, sorting and recycling it. They usually pay a producer responsibility organisation (PRO) a fee per tonne or kilogram, set by material and often by recyclability. In the UK, household packaging disposal fees go to PackUK, the scheme administrator under SI 2024/1332 (PR-GB-002).

Eco-modulation adjusts the fee for end-of-life performance, either inside the rate table (UK RAM ratings, Oregon’s acceptance lists, Colorado’s final dues) or as a percentage bonus or malus (Citeo, Ecoembes).

A plastic packaging tax is a government levy on the plastic itself, usually tied to recycled content, paid to the tax authority. In the UK and Spain the same pack can owe both.

The markets in the calculator

Each market has at least one published table sourced to the scheme or government. Rates are stored per tonne or per kilogram as published; the only unit conversions are Citeo’s euro cents per kg (x10), Ecoembes’ euros per kg (x1,000) and CAA’s US cents per lb (1 US cent per lb = USD 22.0462 per tonne). No rate is converted between currencies, and no total or ranking adds fees across them: the euro schemes, the US states (USD), the UK and Isle of Man (GBP) and British Columbia (CAD) are each read in their own currency.

Source: SPI EPR & Plastic Tax Calculator, sources consulted 12 and 13 Oct 2026. Row counts include the plastic tax row in the UK and Spain.

Three notes. Repak’s figures are the brand holder or importer share; with manufacturer, converter and retailer shares the full-chain total for non-recycled plastic is EUR 620.22 per tonne, against EUR 616.22. ARA’s commercial lines are far below its household lines (EUR 0.07 against EUR 0.208 per kg for paper). CONAI changed its plastic bands on 1 October 2026, and the calculator uses the new rates.

Per-material rate comparison

Each chart stays inside one currency. Material lines do not map one to one across schemes, so each line used is named.

Plastic in the nine euro schemes

PET bottles are the lowest plastic line in Luxembourg, Spain, Belgium and France; films, laminates and PVC are at the top. Belgium charges EUR 2,209.5 per tonne for PP film against EUR 360.4 for clear PET bottles. The Netherlands, Austria and Portugal price plastic in one or two lines, so a format change inside plastic barely moves the fee there.

Paper, glass, aluminium and steel in the euro schemes

Ecoembes adds a glass unit factor of EUR 0.00498 per unit to its EUR 0.03515 per kg, so the per-tonne figure understates light glass. Fost Plus charges EUR 0.4513 per kg for aluminium below 50 micron, over nine times its EUR 0.0491 for thicker aluminium (FEE-BE-004 and 005).

United Kingdom: PackUK illustrative fees by RAM rating

PackUK’s Year 2 fees are modulated by the recyclability assessment methodology (RAM): each material has a green, amber and red rate. These are the government’s illustrative figures, updated 19 December 2025 (PR-GB-003).

Oregon and Colorado: one PRO, two fee tables

Circular Action Alliance runs packaging EPR in both states with separate 2026 tables. Oregon’s rate depends on whether a material is on the statewide collection list (USCL), the PRO list or not accepted. Colorado’s final dues already include a 5% malus for recycling disruptors and a 5% bonus for high recycling rates. Cents per lb are as published; per-tonne figures apply 1 US cent per lb = USD 22.0462 per tonne.

The highest US rates are for foamed polystyrene: USD 3,042.38 per tonne in Oregon for expanded PS containers and USD 3,791.95 in Colorado for coloured expanded PS cushioning. Oregon has also banned foam containers for prepared food and foam packing peanuts since 1 January 2025 (PR-US-013).

British Columbia

Recycle BC’s 2026 schedule, in Canadian cents per kg, shows corrugated cardboard at CAD 0.60 per kg (up 13.2% on 2025), PET bottles CAD 0.97 (down 1.0%), PET thermoforms CAD 1.34 (up 36.7%) and plastic film CAD 1.84 (up 26.0%).

Eco-modulation: how recyclability changes the fee

UK: RAM green, amber and red

PackUK’s illustrative Year 2 rates put red about 20% above the amber base and green about 9% below it; the green discount is provisional and depends on full-year 2025 RAM data (PR-GB-003). If you do not know an item’s rating, model red, since unrated items attract the highest fee.

France: Citeo maluses and bonuses

Citeo’s bonuses and maluses change the per-unit contribution by a percentage. Maluses at different levels add up, and a malus for disrupting recycling cancels any bonus (pp. 31-32). The calculator lists them but does not apply them.

Bonuses include minus the percentage weight reduction (at least 1% on the previous year) and minus 10% on the weight part for paper and board with over 50% recycled fibre (pp. 28 and 45). Per sales unit, Citeo also charges a litter contribution of 0.0915 euro cents (food), 0.1433 (drinks) or 0.0944 (non-food), plus 0.0140 cents for reuse (pp. 29-30); producers with fewer than 10,000 sales units pay a flat EUR 110 (p. 14).

Spain, Colorado and Oregon

Ecoembes applies a +10% penalty to elements that hinder recycling, and bonuses per qualifying attribute such as -3.3% for PET trays; a penalised element cannot also earn a bonus (eco-modulation guide 2026, pp. 11 and 28). Colorado’s four active incentives for 2026 are claimed through the CAA portal and their amounts are not public. Oregon’s 2026 schedule has no bonus or malus columns.

Plastic packaging taxes

The calculator adds a tax line in three markets: the UK and Isle of Man tax on the whole plastic weight when recycled content is under 30%, and the Spanish tax on the non-recycled share only.

The UK tax applies to manufacturers and importers meeting the 10 tonne test; from 1 April 2027 pre-consumer plastic will no longer count towards the 30% threshold (PR-GB-001). Spain’s tax also covers preforms, sheets and closures, and recycled plastic is excluded only when certified by an accredited entity (PR-ES-001).

The EU own resource is paid by governments, but it gives them a budget reason to push recycling through national taxes or EPR fees. The proposed rise to EUR 1 per kg in 2028, procedure 2025/0574(CNS), is not adopted (PR-EU-018).

Worked examples

Example 1: the default UK view

The calculator opens with 100 t plastic, 200 t paper and board and 50 t glass on the UK market, at RAM green and 0% recycled content.

All amber gives an EPR subtotal of GBP 97,750 (45,500 + 42,000 + 10,250); all red GBP 116,750 (54,500 + 50,000 + 12,250). Entering 30% recycled content removes the GBP 22,882 tax line, a saving close to the GBP 19,000 amber-to-red gap. UK EPR figures are illustrative.

Example 2: Spain, EPR plus the plastic tax on the non-recycled share

The same 350 tonnes in Spain: PET drinks bottles of 3 litres or less (SUP), non-SUP paper and board, glass at the weight factor, 25% recycled content.

If the glass is 200,000 jars of 250 g, the optional per-unit panel adds 200,000 x EUR 0.00498 = EUR 996.00 outside the headline total. Each extra point of recycled content cuts the tax by EUR 450.

Example 3: Oregon against Colorado

The same tonnage in each state: 40 t clear PET bottles, 60 t corrugated, 20 t glass and 5 t aluminium containers.

Oregon costs USD 11,905.35 more, and 74% of the gap (USD 8,818.80) is the PET line. At 125 tonnes the producer is far above the small-producer flat fee bands, which stop at 10 tonnes (Oregon) and 10 tons (Colorado).

How the calculator works and its assumptions

1. Rate lookup. One row per material and fee category, with rate, unit, year, start date, source link, quoted line and consulted date.
2. EPR line. Tonnes x rate per tonne, or tonnes x 1,000 x rate per kg. One category per material; to cost two plastic formats, run it twice.
3. Tax line. UK and Isle of Man: all plastic tonnes x GBP 228.82 if recycled content is under 30%. Spain: plastic tonnes x (1 minus recycled share) x EUR 450.
4. Totals in the scheme’s currency, never converted, averaged or adjusted. Tonnes with no published rate are listed as not costed.

Assumptions printed with every result: one year’s tonnes at the category chosen; one recycled-content average for all plastic; rates as published, excluding VAT; no exemptions, thresholds, per-unit charges, bonus or malus or membership fees, unless built into the rate (UK RAM bands, Oregon list status, Colorado final dues).

Your figures stay in the page address and SPI does not save them. The method follows the SPI Methodology.

What the calculator does not cover yet

• UK final fees. Confirmed Year 2 fees are not published; results using illustrative figures are flagged. PackUK targets the notice of liability by the end of November 2026 (PR-GB-003).
• Germany. Dual systems set prices in private contracts, so there is no public fee table. The VerpackDG duties are in the SPI Regulation Tracker (PR-DE-001).
• Ontario. Full producer responsibility since 1 January 2026 (PR-CA-003), but Circular Materials shares fees only with registered producers.
• Per-unit fees. Not in the headline figure; Citeo and Ecoembes per-unit parts are in the optional estimate, Belgian and Luxembourg ones not yet.
• Some categories. Portugal’s steel, PP, EPS, wood and cork, and a few Belgian and Luxembourg lines.
• Bonus and malus outside the rate. Listed for Citeo and Ecoembes, not applied.

Key dates

Not tax or legal advice

The calculator gives an estimate from published base rates. It is not an invoice, a guaranteed liability, or tax or legal advice, and SPI does not file returns or registrations. Your real fee depends on your scheme’s categories, recyclability ratings, exemptions and thresholds; confirm with your scheme, the tax authority or qualified counsel.

Where the calculator fits, and when to talk to SPI

In Discover, Understand, Evaluate, Decide and Implement, the calculator sits at Evaluate: the SPI Regulation Tracker shows which rules apply (Understand), the calculator sizes their cost, and redesign or pricing decisions follow.

The calculator handles one market and one category per material at a time. A full portfolio needs SKUs mapped to each scheme’s categories, RAM ratings or maluses per format, per-unit charges, and the cost of moving packs from red to green. That is an EPR exposure assessment under SPI Consulting: Packaging Regulatory Intelligence, with redesign under Sustainable Packaging Strategy. If useful, ask the SPI team for a scoped assessment; pricing is on request.

Related reading: What packaging EPR fees cost per tonne in 2026 and Plastic packaging taxes in force today.