A Recyda vs Ecoveritas comparison comes down to dates. Recyda's software is aimed at the PPWR documents due from 12 August 2026 and the recyclability thresholds behind them, while Ecoveritas' service is aimed at the annual EPR return in every market you sell in.
Both do some of the other's job. This page compares them step by step, using only what each company publishes.
Two companies built to hit two different dates
Recyda are a German software company based in Freiburg. They sell one platform, described on their own site as "Packaging Sustainability Management Software", and your team works inside it.
Ecoveritas are a British data and compliance firm that has been trading since 1999. They sell their own team's work, with a separate piece of software for smaller producers.
That is the whole difference in one line. One company gives you a tool. The other gives you people.
The date Recyda is pointed at
Recyda's PPWR page is titled "PPWR Software" and promises to take you "from supporting evidence to signed DoCs".
Their own framing looks past August 2026. They describe the platform as a way to "not just prepare for the August deadline" but "set the foundation for 2030".
The reason is the next date after that. The EU has to adopt its design-for-recycling criteria by 1 January 2028, and from 2030 packaging that does not reach recyclability grade A, B or C cannot be placed on the EU market at all.
So Recyda's clock is the packaging itself. Will this pack still be legal, and can you prove it.
The date Ecoveritas is pointed at
Ecoveritas' five service steps all lead to one place, which is a return being submitted. Their own promise for outsourcing the work is that reports are "accurate and submitted on time".
Their headline number is 250 or more annual returns a year, across packaging, WEEE and batteries.
So Ecoveritas' clock is your reporting calendar. Did the numbers go in, in every country, before the deadline.
Here is how the two published chains compare when you put them next to each other.
The jobs each one takes on and the ones it leaves
The table below runs through the jobs a packaging compliance year actually contains. Each cell says who does the job rather than naming a feature, because that is the thing that changes between these two companies.
"Not offered" means the company's own site does not offer that job, checked in August 2026. It is not a judgement about quality.
| The job | Recyda | Ecoveritas |
|---|---|---|
| Work out which rules apply to you | In the software. It "automatically identifies applicable articles" for PPWR | Their team does it, as an obligation assessment and a written briefing |
| Pull packaging data out of your own systems | In the software, by API from ERP and PLM systems | Their team does it, gathering from your internal teams |
| Chase suppliers for the data you do not hold | Partly in the software. Supplier records are mapped so the platform flags who to ask, with no outreach service published | Their team does it. They claim 32,000 or more supplier data requests a year |
| Fill the gaps that are left | In the software, through gap analysis and a guided enrichment workflow | Their team does it, through validation and quality checks |
| Score how recyclable a pack is | In the software, against Recyclass, CEFLEX, KIDV, the ZSVR minimum standard, the APR Design Guide, COTREP, EN 18120 and UK RAM | Their team does it. RAM is a named area of expertise and the page asks you to get in touch |
| Calculate your EPR fees | In the software, using rulesets for more than 20 countries | Their team does it, as a data calculation step |
| Register you with a scheme or a regulator | Not offered | Their team does it, either guiding your team or managing it on your behalf |
| File the return | Not offered. You export a declaration report and file it yourself | Their team does it, and their experts liaise with regulators directly |
| Pay your scheme fees | Not offered | Their team does it, as part of the outsourced administration |
| Issue an EU Declaration of Conformity | In the software, on a standard or custom template, auto-populated and ready for signature | Not offered. You get a conformity report template instead |
| Build the PPWR technical documentation | In the software, as a generated Technical Documentation Summary | Their team does it, as data structured into a conformity report |
| Give you something to log into | The Recyda platform, after a demo | my.ecoveritas, on a free account |
Read down the two columns and the shape is clear. Recyda's column is mostly software and stops before the filing. Ecoveritas' column is mostly people and starts after the design work is done.
Recyda hands the platform to your team
Recyda publish their EPR product as four numbered steps, and walking those steps is the fastest way to see what you would be buying.
- Consolidate data. An API pulls packaging records out of your ERP or PLM system. A gap analysis then names the data points that are missing for a declaration, and a guided workflow walks someone in your team through filling them.
- Calculate automatically. Recyda maintain the fee rules and apply them. Their site names more than 20 countries, including the UK, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands and France.
- Visualise. Dashboards break the obligation down by material, country and SKU, and a forecasting view models future obligations on illustrative fees.
- Declare. You export a declaration report carrying "precisely the data needed for your country or PRO's EPR declaration requirements", with the source of every figure traceable for an audit.
Note where step 4 stops. Recyda produce the file. Nothing on their site says they submit it, register you, or pay anything on your behalf, so the last move stays with you or with whoever holds your scheme account.
Alongside the platform they sell workshops, data consulting and strategic guidance on automating the process. That is help with using the tool, not somebody running your reporting.
Ecoveritas puts its own people between you and the regulator
Ecoveritas publish five service steps, and they describe them as a chain where "each of our service activities builds on the one before it".
- Obligation mapping and assessment. They identify which regulations apply to you.
- Data collection. They gather what is needed, from your teams and from your suppliers.
- Data calculations. They turn the raw data into the compliant numbers.
- Registration and reporting. They either guide your team through registration or manage it on your behalf, and their experts deal with regulators directly.
- Data analytics. They turn the submitted data back into insight about cost and risk.
Step 4 is the one that has no equivalent on the Recyda side. For global markets they go further still, saying they handle everything "from managing scheme registrations and memberships to paying your compliance scheme fees".
They are deliberately not a compliance scheme
One thing Ecoveritas are careful to say about themselves is what they refuse to be.
In their own words, "as an independent data company, we don't trade PRNs or operate compliance schemes, so our insights and reports are completely impartial".
They will help you price membership and evidence options. They will not sell you either.
If you want the same company to hold your obligation and buy your recycling evidence, neither of these two is that company, and our Valpak vs Ecoveritas page covers the version of that choice where one side does.
The software they sell is aimed lower down the market
Ecoveritas do have a product you can log into, called my.ecoveritas, but their own description of it matters.
They introduce it as "a software platform to meet the needs of small and medium-sized businesses", running six steps from creating an account through uploading data, matching weights and validating, to generating a report.
You can open an account for free with no card, and their subscription plans appear after you sign up.
That is close to the reverse of Recyda, whose platform is pitched as "enterprise-grade software, support, security and audit-readiness" and sold to global brands. So the bigger you are, the more likely you are to meet Ecoveritas as a service and Recyda as a tool.
Where the missing packaging data comes from
Every packaging compliance problem is really the same problem, which is that nobody has the weights. Both companies exist to solve it, and they solve it from opposite ends.
Recyda assume the answer is already inside your business, sitting in an ERP or PLM system or in a packaging technologist's head. The platform imports what exists, tells you exactly what is missing for the guideline you picked, and gives your team a workflow to finish it.
Ecoveritas assume the answer is outside your business, sitting with the people who make your packaging. Their stated volume is 32,000 or more supplier data requests issued and processed each year, against a database they say holds unique packaging metrics for more than four million SKUs.
Which assumption is right for you is not a preference. It is a fact about your own business, and it is worth checking before you talk to either of them.
- If your packaging specifications live in your own systems, Recyda's import-and-enrich route removes most of the work.
- If your specifications live with converters and co-packers who do not answer your emails, a platform will not fix that, and Ecoveritas are selling exactly that fix.
Recyclability is the job they both claim
This is the one area where the two genuinely overlap, and it is worth being precise about the difference, because the words on both sites look similar.
Recyda score it. Their recyclability platform assesses a portfolio against a published list of guideline sets, including Recyclass, CEFLEX, KIDV, the ZSVR minimum standard, the APR Design Guide, COTREP and EN 18120.
It also handles the UK Recyclability Assessment Methodology, classifying a portfolio and pulling through the data a declaration needs.
Ecoveritas explain it. Their RAM page sets out who is obliged to do it, what the red, amber and green ratings mean, and the five stages of the assessment, then asks you to contact the team.
Why this matters more from 2026 onward
RAM ratings started to drive UK fees this year. Ecoveritas' own page puts it plainly, that from 2026 assessed packaging attracts different eco-modulated fees.
Red packaging costs the most and green the least.
Recyda's version of the same argument runs on the EU timetable, where packaging that falls below Grade C recyclability under EN 18120 risks losing market access by 2030.
Either way, recyclability has stopped being a design-team topic and turned into a line on an invoice. If you want the score generated in software you control, that is Recyda. If you want somebody to interpret the rules with you, that is Ecoveritas.
What a PPWR declaration means at each company
This is the single sharpest difference on the page, and it catches people out because both companies talk about PPWR at length.
Recyda issue the document
Their platform generates a Declaration of Conformity on a standard or custom template, automatically populated and ready for signature, alongside a Technical Documentation Summary that consolidates the evidence across components.
They publish the whole status flow, from pending review to technical documentation approved to DoC issued to DoC signed, with an audit log of every change.
Ecoveritas supplies the data and a template
Ecoveritas do not issue the document. Their PPWR offer is an obligation assessment that produces a briefing and a conformity report template, followed by data support that structures your packaging data into a conformity report for your organisation.
A conformity report is not a declaration
A conformity report and a Declaration of Conformity are not the same document.
The declaration is the signed legal statement the regulation requires from you, and our guide to creating an EU Declaration of Conformity walks through what has to be in it, with a field-by-field checklist to check yours against.
Our PPWR compliance software comparison covers the wider set of tools that generate one.
So if a signed declaration is the thing standing between you and 12 August 2026, only one of these two companies produces it in a tool. With Ecoveritas the data and the template are covered and the document is still yours to assemble.
How you buy each one and what you can see first
Neither company publishes a price, but the route in is different enough to matter when you are planning your own time.
| What to compare | Recyda | Ecoveritas |
|---|---|---|
| Public price | None | None |
| First step | Book a demo | Sign up free at my.ecoveritas, or enquire about the service |
| What you see before talking to sales | Marketing pages, guides and webinars | The obligation checker, subscription offers and pricing plans, after a free signup |
| Card needed to start | Not applicable, there is no self-serve entry | "No credit card required to get started" |
The practical version is that Ecoveritas lets a small producer see numbers without a conversation, because the SME product is self-serve. Recyda's route is a call in every case.
That is not automatically worse. A demo-led sale usually reflects a setup that needs scoping, and Recyda's platform involves API connections to your ERP or PLM, which is not something you configure on a free trial afternoon.
Pick by the next date in your calendar
The fastest honest way to choose between these two is to look at whichever deadline is closest to you and work backwards. Each route below points at the company whose published offer covers that date.
- You have to sign a Declaration of Conformity by 12 August 2026. Recyda issue one. Ecoveritas give you the assessment, the template and the data, and you assemble the document.
- You have an annual EPR return due in several countries and nobody to prepare it. Only Ecoveritas register, file and pay on your behalf.
- Your UK RAM ratings are about to change what you pay in 2026. Recyda classify a portfolio in software. Ecoveritas walk you through the method and the consequences.
- The EU design-for-recycling criteria are due by 1 January 2028 and you need a redesign plan. Recyda score against EN 18120 today so you can find the packs at risk. Ecoveritas' site does not offer this as a tool.
- Your suppliers hold data you cannot get and the return is due anyway. Ecoveritas run supplier outreach at volume. Recyda will tell you exactly what is missing, but the asking is yours to do.
- You report batteries or electronics as well as packaging. Ecoveritas' returns cover packaging, WEEE and batteries. Recyda's site covers packaging only.
- You are a small producer who wants to try before committing. my.ecoveritas has a free account. Recyda have no self-serve entry point.
If two of those describe you, that is normal, and it is why a number of large brands end up running a design and documentation tool alongside a reporting service rather than choosing one.
What neither company will do for you
Both of these are worth knowing before you buy, because both leave gaps that somebody in your business still has to cover.
Neither is a compliance scheme.
Neither takes on your legal obligation, and neither trades recycling evidence. Ecoveritas says so explicitly and treats it as the point of their independence. Recyda are a software vendor, so the question does not arise.
Neither publishes a price, so budgeting for either one starts with a conversation.
And neither covers every waste stream. Ecoveritas calculates packaging, WEEE and batteries. Recyda covers packaging only, which means textiles and electronics reporting sits somewhere else entirely.
Where we fit
Repax is our own product, so treat this paragraph as our pitch rather than a neutral finding. We build the self-serve version of this, where your product and packaging data lives in one place and you keep the filings instead of handing them over.
Repax Core does the EPR reporting across packaging, batteries and electronics, and Repax Declare issues the PPWR declaration.
Pricing is public, with a free tier at 0 EUR a month and paid plans from 29 EUR (ex VAT, as of August 2026).
We have also written the head-to-head versions of this page, Repax vs Recyda and Repax vs Ecoveritas.
Both of those pick Repax, which is the difference between our own comparison pages and a neutral one like this.
Frequently asked questions about Recyda and Ecoveritas
Short answers to the questions that come up most when producers weigh these two against each other.
Is Recyda or Ecoveritas better for EPR compliance?
Neither is better in general, because they sell different things. Recyda sell software your team runs, covering data management, fee calculation and PPWR documents for packaging in more than 20 countries.
Ecoveritas sell a service where their team collects, calculates, registers and files on your behalf, across packaging, WEEE and batteries. Choose on whether the work will be done inside your business or outside it.
Does Recyda file EPR reports for you?
No. Recyda's published fourth step is to export a declaration report in the correct format for your country or PRO, and nothing on their site claims they submit it, register you or pay a fee. The filing stays with you or with your scheme account holder.
Does Ecoveritas produce an EU Declaration of Conformity?
No. Ecoveritas' PPWR offer is an obligation assessment, a written briefing, a conformity report template and the data support behind it.
They do not claim to generate or issue the declaration itself, which is the signed statement PPWR requires from the producer. Recyda do generate one, on a standard or custom template, ready for signature.
What do Recyda and Ecoveritas cost?
Neither publishes a price. Recyda sell by demo only. Ecoveritas' service is enquiry-led, but their my.ecoveritas software offers a free account with no card required, and shows subscription offers and pricing plans once you have signed up.
Any figure you find elsewhere is not from their own sites, so treat it carefully.
Which one covers more countries?
Ecoveritas claim the wider reach. Their site says 80 or more countries where they manage global EPR data reporting, and their EPR regulation matrix covers 80 or more countries, updated quarterly.
Recyda states more than 20 countries covered for EPR and recyclability. The two numbers are not measuring the same thing, since one describes a managed service and the other describes rulesets built into software.
Can either one handle batteries and electronics?
Ecoveritas can. Their annual returns cover packaging, WEEE and battery calculations, and their country guidance runs through electrical equipment and battery obligations market by market.
Recyda's site names packaging only, so a multi-stream producer would need something else beside it. Our multi-stream EPR software comparison covers the tools that do span several streams.
Do either of them act as a compliance scheme or buy PRNs?
No, and Ecoveritas make a point of it. They state that as an independent data company they do not trade PRNs or operate compliance schemes, which is what they say keeps their reporting impartial. Recyda are a software vendor with no scheme function.
If you want a producer responsibility organisation to hold the obligation, that is a separate decision from either of these.
Which is better for UK RAM?
They serve different needs on RAM. Recyda classify a packaging portfolio in software and produces the data a UK declaration needs, so it suits a producer with thousands of components to rate.
Ecoveritas explain the methodology, the red, amber and green outputs and the fee consequences, and offers help through their team. Our UK packaging EPR software comparison puts both in context with the rest of the UK market.
