Lorax EPI and Assent both sell software for packaging EPR, and the gaps in what each one publishes fall in opposite places. Lorax EPI name every step where you deal with the compliance scheme. Assent name the step where you deal with your suppliers, which is the one step Lorax EPI leave out.
Extended producer responsibility (EPR) is the duty to register, report and pay for the packaging you put on a market.
Lorax EPI vs Assent is really a question about which part of that job you need done, so this page walks the chain step by step and picks no winner.
The chain a packaging report actually travels
Most comparisons treat EPR reporting as one thing you either buy or do not. It is not one thing. It is a chain of eight steps, and you can be well served on most of them and completely stuck on the one that matters most this year.
Here is the chain, in the order the work happens.
- Work out whether you are obligated. Which markets, which thresholds, which activities trigger a duty.
- Get the data out of your suppliers. Weights, materials and recycled content that live in someone else's factory.
- Clean and structure it. Turn mixed formats into rows a reporting system will accept.
- Register. With the compliance scheme, the national authority, and an authorised representative where one is required.
- Produce the report. Convert your data into the format each scheme asks for.
- Submit it. Someone has to log into the portal and press send.
- Handle the fees. Forecast them, budget for them, and eventually pay them.
- Keep up. The rules change every year, in every market you sell into.
Now sort those eight steps by which company names them, and the comparison falls out in one move.
Assent stand alone on one step, getting the data out of your suppliers. Lorax EPI stand alone on three, and those three are exactly where you deal with the scheme itself rather than with your own data. The other four are shared ground.
That is the whole comparison. One is built around your dealings with the scheme, the other around your dealings with your suppliers, and they share the middle.
Where each company's published work runs
Both companies sell by demo, so the fairest way to compare them is to record what each one puts on its own pages and nothing more. Take the criteria in order, starting with the eight steps of a compliance year and ending with the coverage questions that decide whether a step applies to you at all.
| The step | Lorax EPI | Assent |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Work out whether you are obligated | Obligation Assessment, a paid review covering thresholds, exclusions, exemptions and authorised representative requirements, delivered as a PDF report | Not sold as a separate step, framed as "Build EPR Readiness" |
| 2. Get the data out of your suppliers | Not named among their six services, their data work assumes the data is yours | "Proven Supplier Engagement Engine", with "multilingual education and 1:1 support" and tailored requests for information |
| 3. Clean and structure the data | Data Screening, checked for "completeness and accuracy" and structured for ENVI™ | Validation and data gap identification inside the same engine |
| 4. Register with schemes and authorities | Registration with "PROs, national authorities and Authorised Representatives" | Not named |
| 5. Produce the report | ENVI™ produces "all compliance reports" | "report-ready outputs" and "jurisdiction-specific reports" |
| 6. Submit it to the scheme | On the outsourced tier, "Submit reports directly into scheme portals (if required)". On the software-only tier you submit | Not stated either way |
| 7. Handle the fees | Fee Modelling, forecasting "across all markets", delivered as an Excel model plus a consultant walkthrough | "fee estimations" alongside the report |
| 8. Keep up with changing law | ENVI™ Lite, updated monthly, unlimited internal users on one annual licence | "Trusted Regulatory Expertise" and guidance built into the product |
| EPR streams named | Packaging, WEEE, batteries and textiles | Packaging only |
| Markets named | "Over 200 Schemes Available", global | California SB54, Oregon SB582, Colorado HB22-1355 and Canada's Federal Plastics Registry |
| A PPWR product | Not named on any of their six solution pages | A dedicated PPWR solution page |
| What surrounds the EPR work | EPR reporting, legislative analysis and sustainability consulting | Thirty or more product compliance, sustainability and trade duties |
| A published price | None, their pricing URL returns a 404 | None, their pricing URL returns a 404 |
Four of those criteria do most of the work. Step 2 is the only one Assent name and Lorax EPI do not. Steps 1, 4 and 6 are the three Lorax EPI name and Assent do not. The rest is shared ground or a coverage question.
Lorax EPI sell the dealings with the scheme
Lorax EPI do EPR and nothing else. They were founded in 2014, work from Rugby in the UK plus a US office, describe themselves as "over 80 specialists across the UK and the US", and are B Corp accredited.
Their tagline is "Your compliance, taken care of", and their homepage claims "Over 200 Schemes Available". We cover the wider field they sit in on our page about Lorax EPI alternatives.
Where their work begins
It begins before your data does, with whether you are obligated at all. Assent do not sell that as a step.
Their Obligation Assessment is a paid review of your markets and business model, covering thresholds, exclusions and exemptions, authorised representative requirements, and labelling rules. It arrives as a PDF report.
From there the work runs through their own services in order. Data Screening puts your data into a state ENVI™ will accept. Registration handles the sign-ups across packaging, WEEE (waste electrical and electronic equipment), batteries and textiles.
One honest limit sits in their own words on that same page. "Lorax EPI cannot support plastics tax registrations, as these fall under tax compliance rather than EPR." That is useful, because a packaging tax and an EPR fee are routinely confused.
Where their published work ends
It ends inside the scheme's own portal, and how far it goes depends on which of their two tiers you buy.
On "Standard Service: Software-Only" you take an ENVI™ licence and keep responsibility for "Generating, verifying and submitting reports" yourself.
On "Outsourced Compliance: Hands-Off Reporting" they "manage the entire process for you", including the line that matters most, "Submit reports directly into scheme portals (if required)".
What they do not name anywhere across those six services is supplier outreach. Their Data Screening page is about turning "Your Product & Packaging Data" into something usable, and suppliers are not mentioned on it.
If the numbers are not in your building yet, their services start after that problem rather than on it.
Assent sell the dealings with your suppliers
Assent are headquartered in Ottawa and have been since 2010, with offices in Columbus, Amsterdam, Penang, Eldoret and Pune. Their EPR product is one module of a much larger platform they call the Assent Product Intelligence Network.
Where Lorax EPI sell six services, Assent sell one product with a very specific starting point. We also keep a page on Assent alternatives.
Where their work begins
It begins at the hardest part of the job, which is a supplier who will not answer your email.
A packaging return needs the weight, material and recycled content of every component you sell. For a manufacturer with thousands of stock keeping units (SKUs), almost none of that is written down inside the company. It sits with the firms that make the boxes, films and caps.
Assent's answer is what they call a "Proven Supplier Engagement Engine". They "engage even the hardest-to-reach suppliers with multilingual education and 1:1 support", send "tailored requests for information", and flag the gaps when a supplier answers only half of it.
That is a people-and-process product as much as a software one, aimed squarely at the one step Lorax EPI leave unnamed.
Where their published work ends
It ends at the edge of the scheme. Their sub-headline says the solution helps you "collect packaging data and generate report-ready outputs with fee estimations".
"Report-ready" is worth reading literally. Assent do not state anywhere on their EPR page who submits the report, and registration is not named as something they handle.
The nearest thing to a filing claim sits on their PPWR page, where they write that "Assent offers optional EPR execution services to help manage reporting complexity". That is an optional service, not a published commitment to file.
The other half of their pitch is what surrounds the EPR module. The same network covers REACH, RoHS, PFAS, CBAM, EUDR, CSRD and trade compliance duties, for industries like medical devices, aerospace and automotive.
Registration is the step only one of them sells
Of the three steps that separate these two companies, registration is the one with the most consequences, because it gates everything after it.
Registering is not one form. In most EU markets it is three separate sign-ups, and none of them can be skipped.
Lorax EPI sell that as a named service, with "End-to-end support with compliance scheme registrations", national authority registrations, and support with historic activity and retrospective fees. Assent do not name registration on their EPR page.
That does not make Assent's product incomplete. It makes it a different product, and a manufacturer whose in-house team already handles registrations is buying exactly what Assent describe.
Nobody here pays your fees
Both companies talk about EPR fees, and neither offers to settle the invoice. What differs is the shape the number arrives in.
Lorax EPI sell Fee Modelling, "Forecasting of EPR costs across all markets", delivered as an Excel model with a per-jurisdiction tab plus a session where their consultants walk you through it. It is pitched at packaging design decisions, not just at the invoice.
Assent generate "fee estimations" alongside the report itself, so the number arrives with the data rather than as a separate consulting output.
Neither is a payment service. Sphera are the nearest vendor in this category that publishes a claim to pay recycling fees on a customer's behalf, and neither company here makes that claim.
One more note, and it is ours rather than a neutral finding. We build Repax, a self-serve EPR platform with public plans that start at a free tier, plus a separate product called Declare for packaging declarations of conformity.
It is a different shape of purchase rather than a better one, and it will not chase your suppliers for you.
PPWR is on one roadmap and not the other
The EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) replaces the old packaging directive, and its first big compliance date is 12 August 2026. It is the duty where these two publish very different amounts of material.
Assent have a dedicated PPWR solution page naming substances of concern, recyclability, recycled content verification, labelling, documentation and CE conformity requirements.
Lorax EPI do not name PPWR on any of their six solution pages, which is not the same as ignoring EU packaging law. Their regulatory subscription covers "Enacted packaging laws, including design, labelling and EPR requirements". It is simply not sold as its own product today.
Neither company names a packaging declaration of conformity anywhere on the pages checked in August 2026. If a customer or an authority asks you for that document, it is not a deliverable either one advertises.
Neither one publishes a price
There is very little to report here, which is itself the finding.
Neither company publishes a price, a tier, a per-SKU rate or a contract length, and both of their pricing URLs return a 404. Lorax EPI ask you to "Request a demo". Assent offer "Book a Demo" and "Get a Quote".
Budget for a sales process either way, and ask for pricing shaped the way your obligation actually grows.
Which side of the job is actually breaking
The useful question is not which product is stronger. It is which side of the job is failing in your company right now. Six situations, each pointing at the published capability that matches it.
- Your suppliers will not answer. That is the problem Assent's engagement engine is written for, and Lorax EPI do not name supplier outreach among their services.
- You have the data and drown in schemes. The pain is deadlines, formats and portals across many markets, which is the shape of Lorax EPI's six services.
- You carry WEEE, batteries or textiles. Only Lorax EPI name those streams. Assent's EPR product is packaging only.
- Your obligations are North American. Assent name California, Oregon, Colorado and Canada's Federal Plastics Registry by name. Lorax EPI publish a scheme count instead.
- You are not registered, or you need someone to press submit. Both are named Lorax EPI services and neither is named by Assent.
- Packaging EPR is one duty among twenty. If REACH, RoHS and CBAM sit on the same desk, Assent's network is built to hold them together. If EPR is the whole job, that breadth does nothing for you.
Why these two are rarely a straight either or
On the evidence, these two are only occasionally competing for the same budget.
One buyer genuinely has to choose. That is a manufacturer whose obligations are North American, who carries no WEEE, batteries or textiles, who is already registered, and whose only real gap is getting supplier data into a report.
Move away from that profile in any direction and the shortlist resolves itself. Add an EU scheme or a second waste stream and Lorax EPI have published work that Assent do not. Take away your ability to get supplier data and Lorax EPI's services start after your actual problem.
It is also entirely sane to end up with both, and plenty of large manufacturers are shaped that way.
Neither company is the safer default. Work out which side of the job is failing, then buy for that side.
Frequently asked questions about Lorax EPI and Assent
These are the questions that come up most often when both names are on the same shortlist.
Is Lorax EPI or Assent better for EPR compliance
Neither is better in general, because they publish work on different parts of the job. Assent focus on getting packaging data out of suppliers. Lorax EPI focus on obligations, registration, filing and fees once you hold that data.
Does either one submit your EPR report for you
Only Lorax EPI publish a commitment to submit. Their outsourced tier lists "Submit reports directly into scheme portals (if required)", while their software-only tier leaves it to you. Assent do not state who submits.
What do Lorax EPI and Assent cost
Neither publishes a price. Both pricing URLs return a 404, and both companies route you to a demo or a quote instead. Budget for a sales conversation with either one and ask how the fee scales with your obligation.
Which one covers WEEE and batteries
Lorax EPI name packaging, WEEE, batteries and textiles across their obligation assessment and registration services. Assent's EPR product covers packaging only, and their EU Batteries Regulation work is due diligence rather than battery EPR reporting.
How do they compare on PPWR
Assent sell a dedicated PPWR solution covering substances, recycled content, labelling and documentation. Lorax EPI do not name PPWR on their six solution pages, though their regulatory subscription covers enacted packaging laws including design, labelling and EPR requirements.
Can you use Lorax EPI and Assent together
Yes, and for a large manufacturer it is a reasonable setup. Assent handle supplier data across many regulations, Lorax EPI handle the EPR obligations and filings. Their published scopes overlap mainly at the report itself.
Who pays the EPR fees
You do, in both cases. Lorax EPI forecast fees through a paid modelling service, Assent estimate them alongside the report, and neither company publishes a claim to pay a scheme on your behalf.
