Packaging data: how to create your file for extended producer responsibility
How to structure your packaging data submission. It includes information about the different types of data you need to submit and the codes you need to use.
Documents
Details
If you’re an organisation that supplies packaging to consumers and businesses in the UK, you may have to take action to comply with extended producer responsibility (EPR) for packaging.
You may need to collect and submit data about packaging you’ve supplied through the UK market, or any filled packaging you have imported and discarded in the UK.
Find out if you need to collect and report your packaging data.
You may also have to report data about which country in the UK packaging is supplied in and which country in the UK packaging is discarded in. This is called nation data.
Find out if you need to submit nation data.
Guidance on how to submit nation data will be published separately.
When you need to take action
Large organisations need to submit data every 6 months. Small organisations submit data once a year.
Small and large organisations are also known as small and large producers. Find out whether your organisation counts as small or large for EPR for packaging.
Deadlines for reporting packaging data
By 1 April 2025:
- small organisations should report their data for all of 2024
- large organisations should report their data for July to December 2024
If you have not reported your data by the appropriate deadline, contact the environmental regulator.
Large organisations should report material already reported under the 2007 regulations for the whole of 2024. They will only report this once.
If you have not reported your data by the appropriate deadline, contact the environmental regulator.
Provisional data structure: Recyclability assessment methodology (RAM) data
From January 1 2025 you’ll have to record data about the recyclability of your household packaging waste.
Large organisations will submit this data from July 2025 onwards.
Small organisations will submit their RAM data from January 2026 onwards.
It will require a final column on the CSV file you submit. This will be called ‘ram_rag_rating’ and use the following codes.
| Code | Name |
|---|---|
| R | Red |
| A | Amber |
| G | Green |
| R-M | Red - medical |
| A-M | Amber - medical |
| G-M | Green - medical |
This is likely to be column N, replacing the current ‘Weight adjusted for transitional packaging (transitional_packaging_units)’.
Large organisations will also have to split their plastics into flexible and rigid, and report these as submaterials of plastic. Small organisations will continue to report ‘plastic’ as a single material, without division into submaterials.
Do not report this for your data from 2024.
This is provisional information.
Find out more about the recyclability assessment methodology.
What this guidance covers
This guidance is for:
- organisations that need to collect and submit data about packaging they’ve supplied or imported through the UK market
- compliance schemes who report packaging data for their member organisations
It explains:
- the different types of data you’ll need to submit about packaging you’ve supplied
- how to structure your data submission file
- the codes you should use in your data file
Help making your file
If you need help creating a packaging data CSV, you can use the ‘generate a packaging data file’ tool to:
- generate a valid packaging data file
- check how your file should be structured before creating one yourself
Example of a packaging data file
You can also use the example packaging data file to see how you should structure your data submission.
How to submit your data
Submit your data using the ‘report packaging data’ service.
Get help and give feedback
If you have any questions, email the packaging team at packaging@defra.gov.uk.
Tell us what you think
You can give feedback about this guidance and the rest of the EPR guidance - let us know if anything is unclear or incorrect.
Updates to this page
Last updated
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This corrects an error in table 8i (small producers). It said 'default to L' for the organisation size cell. This has been changed to 'Use S'
Update history
2025-03-25 15:40
This guide claimed that small producers (small organisations) must submit recyclability data from January 2026. This was incorrect. They do not have to submit this data,
2025-03-06 14:13
This corrects an error in table 8i (small producers). It said ‘default to L’ for the organisation size cell. This has been changed to ‘Use S’
2025-02-17 12:57
This adds information about ‘dual reporting’ of waste packaging, where obligations have been met under the 2007 regulations. It also adds provisional information about a forthcoming change – reporting information about the recyclability of waste packaging.
2024-08-15 12:30
This version updates dates, deadlines and submission codes for 2024 and 2025 packaging data.
2024-05-14 16:16
Updated description of PF code (packed or filled as unbranded), and added codes for 2024 packaging data submission. Additional guidance around self-managed consumer waste rules and self-managed organisation waste rules, including examples.
2024-02-14 10:53
Updated tables 1 and 8a-8i with column headers that will be mandatory in packaging submission files from 13 February 2024.
2024-01-23 14:09
In the HTML document: changed detail about small producers, who should collect data but don’t yet have to report. Added details about the last reporting period for 2023 in tables 1 and 8a-i of the HTML page: July to December 2023 (2023-P3).
2023-12-19 11:27
Clarification in the deadlines section (both in the guidance page and in the HTML page) that small organisations are only obligated to collect the data, not report it, and that in Wales the only period obligated to report is July to December, but data for January to June 2023 can also be reported in April 2024.
2023-10-18 14:00
We’ve added a link so that you can give feedback about this guidance.
2023-08-16 14:51
This update adds links to the ‘report packaging data’ service, which is now live and the ‘generate a packaging data file’ tool, which can help you buiild a well-formed file.
2023-08-08 11:56
This update adds ‘time period for submission’ to tables 8a-i. It corrects a typo in the ‘time period for submission’ codes. It corrects some dates throughout the guidance to reflect service launch timings.It also adds a link to the packaging data example file, which has just been published.
2023-06-06 15:27
Added Welsh translation
2023-05-19 12:07
In the HTML attachment, ‘Table 1: Packaging data file structure’ has been updated. This is because the data file now has to include a column showing the period that the submission covers.
2023-03-24 15:05
We have removed the packaging class O3 (Organisation waste – transferred) from the data file specification, as this field is not required.
2023-03-17 17:41
First published.