EPR fundamentals
A collective scheme that producers join to discharge their EPR obligations, handling registration, reporting infrastructure, fee collection and recycling contracts.
A producer responsibility organisation is the operational layer between the producer and the recycling system. Producers pay fees to the PRO; the PRO contracts collection and sorting, pays material recovery facilities and municipalities, and reports aggregate performance to the regulator. In most European markets, joining a PRO is the only practical way to comply.
PRO structure varies. Germany has a competitive market of dual systems, so a producer chooses among providers on price and service. France runs a small number of accredited eco-organismes per material stream. Several US states use a single approved PRO, in most cases Circular Action Alliance, which reduces choice but also reduces administrative overhead for producers already registered in one state.
Fee schedules differ between PROs even within the same regulatory regime, which is why like-for-like fee comparison requires normalising to a per-tonne rate for the same material category and the same eco-modulation position.
The producer responsibility organisation selected to run packaging EPR programs in most US states with packaging EPR laws.
The French term for an accredited producer responsibility organisation, licensed by the state to collect EPR fees for a defined waste stream.
The German model in which competing private schemes collect and recycle household packaging alongside the municipal waste system.
Adjusting EPR fees up or down according to the environmental performance of the packaging, rewarding recyclable design and penalising problem formats.
Packgine resolves your packaging to component level and applies the rules of every market you sell into.