Greece's register run by the recycling agency
Selling into Greece starts with one number and one agency. EMPA is the Greek EPR producer register, run by EOAN, the Hellenic Recycling Agency, and the producer number it issues has to be in hand before your goods reach the market.
Eight waste streams sit in it, each with its own approved collective scheme.
What EOAN does and what EMPA is for
EOAN is more than the register keeper. As the national recycling authority it approves the collective schemes that run each stream, supervises them, and sets the recovery targets they have to meet, so EMPA is the front door to a system EOAN polices behind it.
The register records who you are and issues your producer number. Compliance then happens through the approved scheme for your stream, the one EOAN has licensed and monitors.
What EMPA covers
Eight streams, each with a long-standing collective scheme.
- Packaging: active since 2001, through HERRCO or Antapodotiki Anakyklosi, with an annual declaration by 31 March and a deposit-return scheme adopted in February 2025.
- Electronics: through Electrocycle or Fotokiklosi.
- Batteries: portable through AFIS, vehicle and industrial through Re-Battery, with the EU Battery Regulation from 18 August 2025.
- Vehicles: the EDOE network handles end-of-life vehicles.
- Tyres and waste oils: through Ecoelastika and ENDIALE.
- Single-use plastics and fishing gear: tobacco-filter duties from January 2023, with schemes still being set up.
Greece also runs producer responsibility for construction and demolition waste, a rare thing in the EU, though that sits outside EMPA in regional schemes such as ANAKEM.
Who must register
Producers that first place a covered product on the Greek market, importers and distance sellers included. The producer number has to be obtained before the goods go on sale, not after.
How registration works
- Identify your stream and its approved collective scheme.
- If based abroad, appoint a Greek authorised representative (see below).
- Register in EMPA and obtain your producer registry number.
- Contract the approved scheme for each stream.
- File the annual put-on-market declaration, packaging by 31 March.
Your producer number
EMPA issues a unique producer registry number (ΑΜΠ) with the registration certificate. It is the reference that proves you are in the system, and no public number pattern is documented.
Registering from abroad
Greece closes the gap that catches foreign sellers elsewhere. A producer based abroad appoints an authorised representative established in Greece, who registers and carries the duties.
A distance seller without a Greek establishment registers through that representative. With none, the marketplace facilitating the sale becomes responsible, so selling through a platform does not make the obligation disappear.
Greek terms you will meet
- EMPA (Εθνικό Μητρώο Παραγωγών): the National Producers Register.
- EOAN: the Hellenic Recycling Agency that runs it.
- ΑΜΠ: the producer registry number.
Frequently asked questions about EMPA
Short answers to what producers ask most.
Who must register in EMPA?
Any producer, importer or distance seller that first places a covered product on the Greek market. Eight streams share the register.
What does EOAN actually do?
EOAN runs EMPA, approves and supervises the collective schemes for each stream, and sets the recovery targets. You register in EMPA and then comply through an EOAN-approved scheme.
What is the ΑΜΠ?
The unique producer registry number EMPA issues with your certificate. It must be in hand before your goods go on the Greek market.
Who is liable if I sell through a marketplace?
If a distance seller has no Greek authorised representative, the marketplace facilitating the sale becomes responsible for the EPR compliance.