Spain packaging EPR fees 2026

Spain's packaging EPR runs under Real Decreto 1055/2022, which defines the producer of product as the packer, or the business importing or buying packaged goods from another Member State to sell them; when a retailer's own brand does not name the maker, the brand holder established in Spain is the producer (article 2.t)⁵. The decree splits packaging three ways: household packaging for use by private consumers, commercial packaging used in shops, hospitality, offices and other services, and industrial packaging used by factories, farms and forestry (articles 2.m, 2.h and 2.n)⁵. Since 12 August 2026 Regulation (EU) 2025/40 governs first, and MITECO says the decree still applies where the Regulation is silent or compatible while a new packaging decree is drafted⁷.

Under article 15, producers enter the Registro de Productores de Producto, envases section, and meet their duties through an individual or collective SCRAP⁶. For commercial and industrial packaging, SCRAP membership has applied since 31 December 2024 under the third transitional provision⁶. Ecoembes is the collective system whose Punto Verde table gives the rates on this page; it prices household and commercial packaging in separate tables¹.

According to the decree's preamble, contributions must cover separate collection with its transport and treatment, information to end users, awareness campaigns and data collection, without going beyond a cost-efficient level⁵. Ecoembes' commercial table charges nothing on the kilograms that reach final holders who manage more than 85% of their own waste under a signed agreement, such as large retail outlets¹.

Ecoembes publishes one price per kilogram for each material and format, with a separate line for packaging inside the Single-Use Plastics Directive scope (marked SUP)¹. The base price is then moved up or down per packaging element by the eco-modulation guide, which applies from January 2024 and is calibrated on final Declaración Anual de Envases data for year n-2⁴. The scheme is designed to balance: the euros raised by penalised tonnes are the ceiling for the bonuses paid to qualifying tonnes in the same fraction⁴.

The legal frame comes from RD 1055/2022: its preamble lists material type and quantity, durability, repairability, reusability, recyclability, superfluity, recycled content and hazardous substances as modulation criteria, and Annex VIII sets the first models, which the guide says are not yet binding and will be reviewed within four years⁴⁵. Glass is charged on two factors at once, EUR 0.03515 per kg plus EUR 0.00498 per unit in 2026¹.

The Ecoembes contribution is EUR 7,174.00, and the state excise on plastic packaging that is not reusable adds EUR 4,500.00, for EUR 11,674.00 in all, about 2.3 euro cents per pack¹. The tax is the largest single line after the tray, because Law 7/2022 charges EUR 0.45 on every kilogram of non-recycled plastic⁹. The lid film is a tenth of the plastic weight but 17% of the Ecoembes amount, since flexible plastic costs EUR 1,243 per tonne against EUR 659 for a PET tray.

Switching to a mono-material tray with more than 25% recycled PET would earn both tray bonuses, 6.6% or EUR 391.45 here, and every kilogram of certified recycled plastic leaves the tax base⁴. At 30% recycled content in tray and film the tax would fall by EUR 1,350.00. An opaque or coloured PET tray would lose the bonuses and pay a 10% surcharge, EUR 593.10⁴.

Spanish producers run two calendars: the state registry, which takes calendar-year data by 31 March, and the Ecoembes price cycle, which now publishes the next year's table in summer⁶¹⁰. Self-assessment of the plastic tax runs separately through form 592⁸.

Most Ecoembes household rates fell for 2026. The steepest cuts hit the SUP lines: the surcharge that SUP packaging paid over the matching non-SUP line shrank from EUR 0.101 per kg in 2025 to EUR 0.011 in 2026, so PET drinks bottles of up to 3 litres dropped 29.6% and SUP paper with plastic content 42.2%¹². Mainstream lines moved little: flexible film fell 1.9%, PET trays 1.8% and HDPE 8.9%, while wood and cork rose from EUR 22 to EUR 30 per tonne and the glass weight factor stayed at EUR 35.15¹².

The 2025 table carries a footnote that the conditions of the new Convenio would be regularised, exceptionally, in the 2025 regularisation invoice issued in 2026². The 2027 table, published in August 2026, keeps the EUR 0.011 SUP gap and moves the main lines only slightly: HDPE to EUR 0.282 per kg, flexible film to EUR 1.269 and glass to EUR 0.03761 per kg plus EUR 0.00533 per unit³. Prior rates are matched by position in the two PDF tables, which share one layout.