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Extended producer responsibility

The complete EPR overview

Sell a product in Europe and you pay for what it becomes as waste. That is extended producer responsibility: national laws, per waste stream, with a register behind each one. This page maps the whole system.

16 waste streams 31 countries 46 producer registers

What is EPR

Producers pay for what their products become

Extended producer responsibility makes the company that places a product on a market pay for its collection, recycling and end of life. Instead of taxpayers funding the waste system, the producer funds it: you register in each country you sell into, report what you place there and pay fees on it.

The system has three moving parts. Waste streams define what is regulated, countries define how, and registers hold the list of who complies. The rest of this page walks through each one.

Who counts as a producer

Wider than "manufacturer": the first company to place the product on that market.

  • The brand owner selling under its own name
  • The importer bringing goods into the market
  • The webshop selling cross-border to consumers
  • The dropshipper who never touches the goods

If nobody in the chain paid EPR fees in a country, the duty is yours.

Waste streams

One product can trigger several waste streams

A waste stream is a product category with its own EPR rulebook: what counts, who is obligated, what you report. A phone in a box is electronics, packaging and a battery, three waste streams from one product.

View Packaging If your company puts packaging on an EU market (boxes, filler, labels, the bottle and its cap), you pay for its collection and recycling. One stream, 31 country registers, each with its own fees and deadlines.
View WEEE Anything with a plug, a battery or a circuit is electrical equipment in the EU's eyes. Sell it in any of 31 European markets and you register as a producer, report what you placed, and fund its collection as e-waste.
View Batteries Every battery placed on an EU market carries a producer obligation, whether it ships loose or built into a device. The Batteries Regulation now sets one EU rulebook, and 31 European markets run active schemes.
Tyres, toys, textiles, waste oils and 9 more each carry their own rulebook. View all 16 waste streams

Countries

EPR is national law, 31 times over

EU directives set the goal; every country writes its own act. Registration, thresholds, report cadence and fees change at each border, so five markets mean five registrations and five calendars.

Germany 3 producer registers France 1 producer register Spain 3 producer registers Italy 1 producer register Netherlands 2 producer registers United Kingdom 3 producer registers
View the full EPR country overview, all 31 markets

Consequences

One missing number unravels fast

The registers are public. Marketplaces, distributors and authorities all check them, so selling without a registration rarely stays unnoticed for long.

  • 01 Delisting. Marketplaces remove sellers whose registration numbers do not check out.
  • 02 Back fees. Duties start at the first sale, not at registration. Fees collect retroactively.
  • 03 Fines. Administrative, not criminal, but they reach six figures in the larger markets.

Registering late costs little. Selling unregistered costs much more.

National registers

Every market lists its producers in a register

The register is the state's public producer list; you join it before your first sale and put the number on offers and invoices. It is not a PRO, the scheme that recycles for you: in most markets you need both.

Some countries run one register for everything, like Denmark's DPA. Others split by stream, like Germany's LUCID for packaging and stiftung EAR for electronics.

View all 46 national registers

Coverage

Every waste stream, every market

The full grid: 16 waste streams against 31 countries. A filled cell means producer duties apply in that market today or are on the way.

Active Partial rules Upcoming No producer duty
Packaging 31 markets WEEE 31 markets Batteries 31 markets Single-use plastics 31 markets End-of-life vehicles 31 markets Textiles 29 markets Tyres 25 markets Waste oils 15 markets Graphic paper 6 markets Furniture 7 markets Toys 2 markets Sports and leisure 2 markets DIY and garden 1 market Construction materials 3 markets Boats 1 market Fishing gear 26 markets

Deadlines

The rules keep moving

EPR is not a one-time setup. These are the EU-level dates to have in the calendar.

  1. Today

    16 waste streams live

    Producer duties already apply across 31 European markets, from packaging and WEEE to tyres and France's AGEC filières.

  2. 12 August 2026

    PPWR applies in full

    Regulation (EU) 2025/40 takes effect across the EU. Packaging placed on the market needs a Declaration of Conformity under Article 39.

  3. Around 2028

    Textiles EPR goes mandatory

    The revised Waste Framework Directive obliges every member state to run a textile EPR scheme. France, the Netherlands and others already do.

What extended producer responsibility means

Placeholder copy. Extended producer responsibility is a legal principle: the company that places a product on a market pays for what that product costs society as waste. Every member state carries it out through national law.

Each part of the system has its own directory on this site: the waste stream guides, the country overview and the national register directory.

How EPR works in practice

Placeholder copy. You register as a producer before your first sale, join an approved scheme where the waste stream requires one, then report volumes on the country's cadence and pay fees on what you place.

Turn one product spec into any EPR report

Spec your products once. Repax generates the report each national register and scheme expects, in every country you sell into.

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