Portugal packaging EPR fees 2026

Portuguese packaging EPR is set by Decree-Law 152-D/2017 (UNILEX), dated 11 December 2017, which governs specific waste flows, as republished by Decree-Law 102-D/2020 and in force in that form since 1 July 2021⁶. The obliged party is the embalador: whoever packs its own products or has them packed, or imports or buys packaged goods in another EU country, and who is treated as responsible for placing them on the market⁶. The embalador either transfers responsibility to a licensed managing entity through a written contract and the payment of financial contributions (article 10), or runs an individual system authorised for up to five years and backed by a guarantee lodged with APA (article 9)⁶.

Sociedade Ponto Verde holds the licence granted on 28 June 2024 by APA and DGAE and homologated that day by Despacho Conjunto n.º 13/ME/MAEN/2024, amended in September 2024 and extended to the Azores and Madeira⁵. It shares the integrated urban system, SIGRE, with Novo Verde and Electrão; APA's 2023 report lists 729,024 tonnes for SPV, 99,015 for Electrão and 76,003 for Novo Verde⁷. SIGRE serves producers of urban-type waste under 1,100 litres a day, while larger non-urban flows go to licensed operators⁷.

SPV ended 2025 with 7,808 member companies, which declared 710,848 tonnes of urban-flow packaging, 3.4% less than in 2024, and 232,662 tonnes of non-urban packaging⁵. The money pays municipal and concession systems for selective collection and sorting; SPV estimates the urban recovery rate at 59% for 2025, below the legal target⁵. Drinks containers inside the Volta deposit system are run by SDR Portugal, a separate managing entity licensed since 1 June 2024⁹.

The VPV is proportional to the declared weight and depends on the material, on whether the waste is urban or non-urban, and on the number of single-use plastic cups placed on the market, on a polluter-pays basis⁸. For 2026 each material has a base value and, for most, a bonificado value 10% lower that applies only when the packaging meets every eco-modulation criterion set for that material; VAT is added at the legal rate¹. SPV says the 2026 criteria are checked with its Pack4Sustain tool⁵.

Billing follows the declarations: the annual contribution uses the prior year's declared weights, adjusted for the previous year's invoicing and the current year's VPV⁴. The table can change mid-year. SPV's August 2025 edition records a revision of the glass and aluminium values approved on 1 August 2025, which its activity report links to a 2025 derogation for those two materials³⁵. The 2026 table first appeared in December 2025 and was reissued in June 2026 with the same values¹². SPV also reports a fall of about 26% in the resale prices of recovered materials in 2025, which raises the net cost the fees must cover⁵.

At the 2026 base values the urban-flow VPV is EUR 24,870.80, close to 5 euro cents a bottle, before VAT¹. The HDPE bottle is two thirds of it. Because the case reaches the shop rather than the household, the brand should check with SPV whether it is declared in the urban or non-urban flow; at the non-urban paper rate of EUR 0.0077 per kg the case line would be EUR 192.50 instead of EUR 7,760.00¹.

If bottle, sleeve and case all met their material's eco-modulation criteria, the bonificado values would cut the total by 10% to about EUR 22,384. The PP cap is left out because the PP rate is not yet in the SPI fee table, although the 2026 table prices PP at the same EUR 0.5432 base as HDPE¹. The brand's annual invoice follows its prior-year declaration, so a lighter bottle launched in 2026 lowers the bill from the next cycle⁴.

The legal reporting runs through APA's electronic register, while SPV invoices from each member's annual declaration. SPV's public pages give no fixed date for that declaration, so members should take it from their contract.

Urban-flow values rose across the board for 2026. The single 2025 plastic value of EUR 0.4471 per kg became EUR 0.5432 for every plastic line, up 21.5%; paper and board rose 19.3% to EUR 0.3104, liquid food cartons 17.5% to EUR 0.5140, and other materials more than doubled from EUR 0.2821 to EUR 0.5799¹³. The 2026 table also adds separate plastic lines and the 10% bonificado column, neither of which appears in the 2025 table¹³.

SPV gives no single reason in the tables. Its 2025 activity report records EUR 98 million more paid to municipal and concession systems, a roughly 26% fall in recovered-material resale prices and an urban recovery rate of 59% still short of the target, all of which push costs up⁵. Glass and aluminium are left out of the rows: the August 2025 edition revised both values, and SPI has not yet matched them to their lines in the table.