Ireland is unusual in Europe. Most countries put every producer on a register and then decide what to charge. Ireland asks two questions first, and only the businesses that answer yes to both are pulled into the expensive half of the rules.
Both questions are about weight and money, and nobody in the Irish system measures either one for you. That is the job Irish EPR software has to do, so this page ranks six providers on how much of it they take on.
Two tests decide whether Ireland counts you as a major producer
The European Union (Packaging) Regulations 2014 split producers into two groups, and the split is what everything else hangs off.
Both tests have to be true at once
Regulation 4(3) says a major producer is a producer whose aggregate weight of packaging supplied "exceeds or may be expected to exceed 10 tonnes in a calendar year" and who "has an annual turnover of more than €1 million".
The word to notice is "and". A craft brewery turning over €600,000 on 14 tonnes of glass is not a major producer. Neither is a software company turning over €4 million on two tonnes of shipping boxes. Both tests, or neither counts.
Both are measured on Irish activity. The tonnage is the aggregate arising from all of the producer's relevant activities within the State, and the turnover is the turnover derived from its activities within the State, exports included.
Nobody measures the tonnage for you
There is no Irish register that weighs your packaging and tells you which side of the line you sit on. Ireland's national producer register, Producer Register Limited, covers electronics, batteries and tyres, not packaging.
Repak, the scheme that ends up collecting the fee, says so plainly in its own member guide. "The amount of tonnes your business places on the Irish market will need to be determined through an audit."
That single sentence is the reason an Irish producer needs a packaging record before it needs anything else. You cannot answer the question the law asks without one, and you cannot prove your answer to an inspector either.
It also catches people out in a specific way. The tonnage counts packaging sold through your front door, not the waste collected from your back door.
A pub that sends five tonnes of empties to a recovery operator has not thereby measured anything relevant. What counts is the packaging around what it sold.
What every Irish producer owes whatever its size
Falling under the threshold does not mean falling out of the regulations. Part II of the 2014 regulations applies to every producer, with no tonnage or turnover qualification at all, and it carries four duties worth knowing.
- Separate your own packaging waste. Regulation 5 covers packaging waste arising on your premises, back-door waste included, and requires it to be separated at source by material type and collected for recovery. It also says nobody may contaminate specified packaging waste, and a local authority can direct you in writing on how to separate it.
- Keep a record of every reuse trip. If your packaging is returned to you to be refilled, regulation 6 wants a record for each trip or rotation, covering eight things: what the packaging is, its material, its aggregate weight, the number of units, the date it went out, the date it came back, the date it was refilled, and the supporting information behind all of that.
- Answer a weight request from a customer. Regulation 7 is short and useful. A producer who supplies packaging to another producer "shall comply with any reasonable request from the latter producer for data on the weight of the material or packaging concerned", so that the customer can meet its own obligations.
- Check your recovery operator's permit. Regulation 8 puts the burden on you to make sure a person calling themselves a recovery operator actually holds the licence or permit the Waste Management Act requires, or is exempt from needing one.
Regulation 7 deserves a second look, because it solves the problem most Irish producers hit first.
When a brand owner cannot weigh a component because a supplier packed it, that brand owner has a statutory right to ask the supplier for the weight, and the supplier has to answer. "Our supplier will not give us the data" is not a position Irish law leaves you in.
Joining an approved body is the only route left
Until the end of 2022 an Irish major producer could choose between joining a compliance scheme and self-complying under its local authority. That choice is gone.
The European Union (Packaging) (Amendment) Regulations 2022 came into operation on 1 January 2023 and inserted a single sentence into regulation 10: "a major producer shall be a member of an approved body."
The same instrument revoked regulations 12 to 16, which were the self-compliance machinery, and its explanatory note says what it was for in one line, "to remove self-compliance as an option".
Approval is granted by the Minister for a term of at least four and at most ten years.
The regulations allow more than one body to hold an approval. In practice there is one. Repak's published approval runs from 1 January 2026 to 30 September 2035, so "join an approved body" means "join Repak".
The certificate is what switches the hard duties off
The interesting part is what membership buys. Regulation 9 applies regulations 10, 11 and 25 to major producers "unless such producers are exempt in accordance with regulation 17".
Regulation 17 exempts any producer holding a certificate from an approved body saying it is participating in a satisfactory manner.
Those three regulations are not small. Without the certificate a major producer must:
- fix a notice within one metre of every entrance to every premises it supplies from, and provide facilities for customers to strip and deposit packaging there;
- accept packaging waste of its own brand from any person, free of charge, between 9.30 a.m. and 5.30 p.m. Monday to Friday, and collect from any producer it supplies within a week of being asked;
- hit quarterly recovery and recycling shares on its own tonnes, 60% recovered and 55% recycled, with per-material minimums of 60% for glass, 60% for paper and board, 50% for metals, 22.5% for plastics and 15% for wood;
- answer a local authority notice demanding a packaging report, other information about the use, type, quantity, origin and destination of its packaging, or evidence of its turnover, within a period of at least six weeks.
A member holding a live certificate does none of that. It displays a different notice at its entrances and pays a fee instead. Since 2023 the certificate is also compulsory, so what looks like a choice on paper is really a description of what the fee is buying.
The fee is charged per tonne at four points in the chain
Repak prices packaging by weight and type, and it also prices it by where you sit in the supply chain. Its published rate sheets are the clearest public picture of what Irish packaging actually costs.
Repak recognises four roles, and one company can occupy more than one of them.
A materials manufacturer makes or imports the materials packaging is made from. A converter makes or imports empty packaging. A brandholder or importer owns the branded product or imports the goods. A retailer sells to the person who removes the packaging.
Almost all of the money sits with the brandholder or importer. On the 2027 Regular Membership sheet the materials manufacturer and the converter pay €1.00 a tonne each and the retailer pays €2.00, whatever the material. Everything else lands on the brandholder.
| Packaging type | Brandholder or importer | Total per tonne |
|---|---|---|
| Recycled paper and cardboard | €49.96 | €53.96 |
| Recycled glass | €17.24 | €21.24 |
| Recycled aluminium | €7.33 | €11.33 |
| Recycled rigid or flexible plastic | €208.13 | €212.13 |
| Non recycled plastic | €672.80 | €676.80 |
| Non-recycled other | €347.44 | €351.44 |
Those are Repak's own row labels and its own rates for the first and second halves of 2027, in euro per tonne. The sheet carries fourteen packaging types in all; the six above are the ones that show the spread.
The spread is the point. A tonne of what the sheet calls non recycled plastic costs a brandholder €672.80, against €208.13 for recycled plastic.
That is a little over three times the price for the same tonne, decided by which row the packaging lands in. Paper sits at about an eighth of the recycled plastic rate, and glass at about a twelfth.
Rates are also moving. The 2026 sheet put recycled rigid plastic at €165.70 for a brandholder and non recycled plastic at €616.22. Between 2026 and 2027 the rigid plastic rate rises about 26%.
Scheduled membership is a flat fee by sector
Smaller obligated businesses join on a different basis. Repak's Scheduled Membership is aimed at growers, market gardeners, distributors and smaller businesses, and it charges an annual fee set by sector, tonnage band and turnover band rather than by measured kilos.
A hospitality business placing 10 to 25 tonnes pays €402 before VAT, €494.46 with the 23% VAT included.
The same business over 25 tonnes pays €986, or €1,212.78 including VAT. Independent retailers and off licences then climb through sixteen turnover bands, topping out at €3,451 before VAT once turnover passes €12.7 million.
That is a genuinely different cost model from most of Europe, where the bill follows the kilos. In Ireland a scheduled member's fee is a band, so the value of good packaging data there is proving which band you belong in rather than shaving a per-kilo rate.
Drinks containers answer to a second scheme
If you place ready-to-drink beverages on the Irish market, Repak is not your only counterparty. Ireland's deposit return scheme, run by Deposit Return Scheme Ireland CLG trading as Re-turn, went live on 1 February 2024.
It covers PET plastic drinks bottles and aluminium and steel drinks cans from 150 ml to 3 litres.
The consumer deposit is €0.15 on containers from 150 ml to 500 ml and €0.25 above 500 ml up to 3 litres. Producers and retailers both have to register, and the producer fee is charged per container regardless of size, varying by material.
Re-turn defines a producer as anyone "who is first to place 'in-scope' products on the market in the Republic of Ireland", whatever the selling method.
The deposit has to be charged even when you supply a distributor rather than a shopper. Repak's own 2026 rate sheet marks its aluminium and steel lines "Non DRS", which is where the two systems meet.
How much of the Irish job each provider carries
The six providers below are not doing the same job, and the difference is not quality. It is how much of the work leaves your desk.
At one end sits Repak, which takes the recovery obligation off you entirely in exchange for a fee and a certificate. At the other sits a data platform you run yourself, which is where Repax is, and we should say plainly that Repax is our own product before you read its entry below.
Neither end is better. A ten-person importer with one packaging spec probably wants the obligation carried. A brand with 900 SKUs across six European markets usually wants the data layer, because the same product record answers Ireland, Germany and France instead of three separate exercises.
What we looked for in Irish EPR software
We only ranked providers whose own site names Ireland and the Irish system, which is a lower bar than it sounds and knocked out several capable European tools.
| What we checked | Why it decides the ranking |
|---|---|
| Names Ireland on its own site | Ireland is small enough that "EU coverage" often means Germany and France. A provider that cannot name Repak has not done the work. |
| Helps you answer the two tests | The threshold is measured, not looked up, so a tool that cannot produce a defensible tonnage leaves the first question open. |
| Holds packaging data at component level | Repak prices by material and type, so a total weight per order is not enough to price or to check a rate. |
| Covers the supply-chain role you occupy | A company can be brandholder and retailer at once, and the rate sheet charges both. |
| Says who presses submit | Some providers file for you, some hand you a return to file. Both are fine; guessing which is not. |
| Carries the data past Ireland | Most obligated Irish businesses also sell into other EU markets, and the same pack specification should answer all of them. |
Everything below is checked against each provider's own live pages, and against the statutory instruments rather than a summary of them.
The best Irish EPR software ranked
Six providers, ordered by how well they answer the Irish questions above for a producer that has to build the data itself.
1. Repax
Repax treats compliance as a property of the product record rather than a filing exercise.
You specify a product once, down to the components and their materials and weights, and the platform turns that specification into whatever the next scheme asks for.
For Ireland that matters twice over, because the threshold has to be measured before you can answer it and the fee is then priced by material and type.
Two products are live today. Core holds the product and packaging specification and produces the reports. Declare produces the EU Declaration of Conformity for packaging under PPWR Annex VIII, which every producer placing packaging on the EU market now has to hold.
A third product, Comply, runs registrations and submissions across EU markets for you. Explore Comply if that is the part you need.
- Best for: a producer that has to prove its own Irish tonnage and then keep proving it as the catalogue changes.
- Strengths: component-level product records, so a pack resolves to materials and weights rather than a single number; one data layer that answers Ireland and every other market you sell in; public pricing with a free tier, from €0 a month on both Core and Declare.
- Markets and streams: multi-market and multi-stream, built around packaging with the EU Declaration of Conformity alongside it.
- Pricing: public. Core from €0 a month, Declare from €0 a month, billed in euro and excluding VAT, with an enterprise quote for high volume.
- Watch-out: Repax is not an approved body. If you are a major producer you still join Repak, and Repax builds and holds the numbers you give them.
It is worth being straight about the division of labour. Repak carries the legal obligation; Repax Core carries the evidence, and the two sit side by side rather than in competition.
2. Repak
Repak holds a ministerial approval and no other approved body is operating, so for a major producer this is not a shortlist entry so much as the route the law leaves open.
Its current approval runs from 1 January 2026 to 30 September 2035, and it reports members' tonnages to the Environmental Protection Agency and files an annual report to the Minister by 31 May each year.
What lifts it above a bare legal requirement is how much it publishes. Both fee sheets are public, which is rare among European schemes, and its PPWR hub carries a producer self-assessment tool, a packaging classification tool and a Declaration of Conformity guide.
- Best for: every Irish major producer, because the certificate is what switches off the take-back duty, the quarterly shares and the local authority's power to demand a packaging report.
- Strengths: the approved route in practice; published rates for both membership classes; a complimentary packaging audit to establish whether you are obligated at all; PPWR tools aimed at members.
- Markets and streams: Ireland only, packaging only. By their own figures, more than 3,500 members.
- Pricing: public. Regular membership per tonne by material and supply-chain role, scheduled membership as a banded annual fee.
- Watch-out: it is a scheme, not a data platform. Repak takes the tonnages you give it and does not build your catalogue, and its remit stops at the Irish border.
3. Greenstreets
Greenstreets is Irish, and says it has spent more than 25 years on Irish packaging compliance and producer responsibility. It publishes separate Irish pages for packaging, batteries and WEEE, which is a fair signal that Ireland is a home market rather than a line on a coverage map.
The pitch is a long-term partnership rather than a self-serve tool. Their own framing is that packaging compliance "is no longer simply about reporting packaging quantities" and now turns on data, recyclability and documentation, which is the same shift PPWR is forcing everywhere.
- Best for: an obligated Irish business that wants the whole thing delivered rather than a portal to log into.
- Strengths: Irish-domiciled and Irish-focused; audit-ready reporting and packaging data management as named services; their own claims of purpose-built software, ISO 9001 and reach across 30 or more markets.
- Markets and streams: Ireland, the UK and Canada, covering packaging, batteries and WEEE.
- Pricing: not published. Scoped per engagement.
- Watch-out: partner-shaped. You get expertise and delivery, and less of a system your own team runs day to day.
4. ComplyMarket
ComplyMarket publishes a dedicated Irish packaging service rather than a country paragraph, and it reads like someone who has been through the regulations.
It states outright that Repak is the only existing approved body and that self-compliance ended on 1 January 2023, which is exactly what the 2022 amendment did.
The service is registration plus reporting plus a traceable record, with a stated minimum dataset you have to supply. That last part is useful, because it makes the data demand explicit before you sign rather than after.
- Best for: a seller who wants Irish registration and reporting run as one managed workflow, with the evidence kept in the same place.
- Strengths: an Ireland-specific product surface; an explicit minimum dataset; inspection-ready recordkeeping; accurate on the point most third-party guides still get wrong.
- Markets and streams: many EU markets with per-country services, packaging-led.
- Pricing: not published.
- Watch-out: their deadline table cites Repak training material rather than the regulations, so treat it as their reading rather than as law.
5. Ecosurety
Ecosurety is a UK compliance scheme with a serious data platform underneath it, and Ireland reaches it through the deposit return scheme.
Their own page offers support for the Republic of Ireland scheme and describes it accurately, noting that it is already in operation and covers PET plastic and aluminium or steel cans.
The platform is the reason to look. They describe over 220 validation checks from ingestion to calculation, ISO 27001 certification with full audit logs, and around 5.5 million rows processed per reporting cycle, with ingestion by raw file, their own collection tool or a direct data sync.
- Best for: a drinks producer whose Irish exposure is the deposit scheme as much as the packaging fee, especially one already reporting in the UK.
- Strengths: deep data validation on large volumes; a named Irish deposit-scheme service; a genuine platform rather than a spreadsheet process.
- Markets and streams: UK-first, with international support charged as a flat rate per country per year. Packaging, plus batteries, WEEE and textiles internationally.
- Pricing: not published for UK services. The international model is a flat charge per country per year, with no figure given.
- Watch-out: their published Irish surface is the deposit scheme. They do not advertise a Repak-side service, so do not assume one.
6. Lovat Compliance
Lovat comes at Ireland from the tax side. It is cross-border VAT software that has grown EPR products alongside, and it publishes an Ireland EPR guide among roughly thirty country guides, plus named services for EPR registration, EPR reporting and acting as an authorised representative.
For a distance seller that is a sensible shape, because the Irish packaging duty tends to arrive in the same month as an Irish VAT question and a marketplace asking for a compliance number.
- Best for: a distance seller handling Irish VAT, marketplace obligations and packaging EPR with one supplier.
- Strengths: EPR registration, reporting and authorised representation as named products; a published EPR pricing page; wide country coverage in one account.
- Markets and streams: roughly thirty countries with EPR guides, packaging-led, alongside VAT and e-invoicing.
- Pricing: published for EPR, alongside separate VAT and marketplace pricing.
- Watch-out: tax-led. The packaging weights still have to come from somewhere, and EPR sits beside VAT rather than being the core product.
Match a provider to where you sit in the chain
The right answer depends less on your size than on which of Ireland's questions is hardest for you.
- You do not know your tonnage. Start with a packaging record, not a scheme. Repak's complimentary audit will give you a first answer, and Repax keeps that answer current as the catalogue moves.
- You are clearly a major producer already. Membership of an approved body is compulsory, so the real decision is who builds the data you hand them.
- You are a brandholder or importer. You carry almost the whole per-tonne fee, so material choices are worth money to you and the rate rows are worth reading closely.
- You are also a retailer. You occupy two roles on the rate sheet and pay both columns, which is easy to miss when you budget.
- You sell drinks in cans or plastic bottles. You have two counterparties, Repak and Re-turn, on different bases. Ecosurety is the entry here with a named deposit-scheme service.
- You sell into Ireland from abroad. Repak splits its own application form by whether you hold an Irish VAT number, and Lovat is built for exactly that overlap.
- Ireland is one of several markets. Spend the effort once on a pack specification that answers all of them rather than per country.
Six providers compared on the jobs Ireland gives you
A side-by-side recap of what each one actually carries and where each one stops.
| Provider | What it carries in Ireland | Where it stops |
|---|---|---|
| Repax | The packaging record, priced and reported per market | Not an approved body, so it does not replace Repak |
| Repak | The legal recovery obligation, in exchange for a fee and a certificate | Ireland only, and it does not build your catalogue |
| Greenstreets | End-to-end delivery of Irish packaging, battery and WEEE compliance | Partner-delivered rather than a system you run |
| ComplyMarket | Irish registration and reporting as a managed workflow | No published price, and deadlines cited from training material |
| Ecosurety | Deposit-scheme data and a heavyweight validation platform | Their Irish service is the deposit scheme, not Repak |
| Lovat Compliance | Irish EPR registration, reporting and authorised representation | Tax-led, so the packaging weights still come from you |
Frequently asked questions about Irish EPR software
The questions Irish producers ask most often once they work out that the rules apply to them.
Do I have to join Repak?
Only if you are a major producer, meaning more than 10 tonnes of packaging a year and more than €1 million of turnover, both at once. Membership of an approved body has been compulsory since 1 January 2023, and Repak is the one operating.
What happens if I am under the threshold?
You still have duties. Regulations 5 to 8 apply to every producer regardless of size, covering source separation of your own packaging waste, reuse records, answering a customer's weight request and checking your recovery operator's permit.
Can I still self-comply with my local authority?
No. The European Union (Packaging) (Amendment) Regulations 2022 removed self-compliance from 1 January 2023 and revoked the regulations that ran it. A local authority can still serve a packaging report notice, but only on a major producer without a certificate.
How much does Irish packaging EPR cost?
Repak publishes both. Regular membership is per tonne by material and role, from €11.33 a tonne for recycled aluminium to €676.80 for non recycled plastic in 2027. Scheduled membership is a banded annual fee, starting at €402 before VAT.
Do deposit bottles and cans still count for Repak?
They are handled by Re-turn on a separate basis, per container rather than per tonne. Repak's own rate sheet marks its aluminium and steel lines "Non DRS", so check which of your drinks containers sit in the deposit scheme before you report.
Who is a producer if I sell into Ireland from another country?
Repak's application form splits e-commerce sellers by whether they are established in Ireland or hold an Irish VAT number. Under the deposit scheme, a producer is whoever first places in-scope products on the Irish market, whatever the selling method.
Is there free EPR software for Ireland?
Repax offers a free tier on both Core and Declare at €0 a month, which covers product specification and reporting. Repak membership itself is never free, because the fee is what funds the collection and recycling your packaging causes.
