UK / Packaging
PackUK published RAM 2027 — the Recyclability Assessment Methodology that sets modulated pEPR fees — on 1 July 2026. It's a UK-specific, domestic producer-fee scheme, mechanically distinct from the EU's Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, with its own near-term reporting deadlines already on the calendar.
Last updated 11 September 2026
RAM 2027 is the methodology large producers must use to rate household packaging red, amber or green for recyclability for packaging supplied from 1 January 2027, replacing RAM 1.1 for that year. It keeps the red/amber/green system already in use, and those grades directly drive modulated Extended Producer Responsibility fees rather than a flat per-tonne base rate. PackUK's illustrative Year 2 figures put a red rating at roughly a 20% uplift over the amber fee, with a green rating carrying an illustrative discount of around 9% — both explicitly described as illustrative and dependent on final producer data, not fixed numbers a business can budget against yet. Modulation itself is not new with RAM 2027: it started with the 2026-27 fee year, calculated on packaging supplied in 2025.
Source: Circular Online, "What RAM 2027 means for packaging producers and pEPR fees", VerdLynx, "UK Packaging EPR (pEPR) Explained: Deadlines, Fees and RAM 2027".
RAM 2027 doesn't retire the current reporting cycle — it sits alongside it. RAM 1.1 stays in force for 2026 packaging data, with first-half data due 1 October 2026 and second-half data due 1 April 2027. RAM 2027 itself governs packaging placed on the market across the 1 January to 31 December 2027 period, with its own reporting deadlines of 1 October 2027 (H1) and 1 April 2028 (H2). A producer preparing for RAM 2027 still has two ordinary RAM 1.1 filings to get through first.
Source: Packaging Gateway, "PackUK issues 2027 packaging RAM rules".
A business is exempt if its annual UK turnover is £1 million or less, or if it handles 25 tonnes or less of packaging a year — both thresholds have to be cleared to be in scope, not just one. Above that, small producers (turnover between £1m and £2m handling over 25 tonnes, or turnover over £1m handling between 25 and 50 tonnes) carry lighter reporting duties; large producers (turnover over £2m and over 50 tonnes of packaging a year) register with their environmental regulator and pay modulated waste disposal fees to PackUK. For a consumer-electronics or IoT manufacturer, this covers retail boxes, protective inserts and e-commerce shipping packaging — the same scope PPWR covers in the EU, but assessed and fee'd through an entirely separate UK mechanism.
Source: House of Commons Library, "Packaging extended producer responsibility" (CBP-10352).
We cover the EU's Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) separately on our PPWR page — it requires an EU Declaration of Conformity for each packaging type and PFAS limits on food-contact packaging from 12 August 2026, with reuse targets following from 1 January 2030. UK pEPR has no Declaration-of-Conformity mechanism at all; it's a producer-fee and reporting scheme run through PackUK and the environmental regulators, with recyclability grading determining what you pay rather than what you're allowed to place on the market. A manufacturer selling into both the UK and EU needs to run both tracks — they don't overlap or substitute for each other.
Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging is a UK producer-fee scheme, separate from the EU's Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation. Obligated producers register with their environmental regulator and report the packaging they place on the UK market; large producers also pay PackUK, the scheme administrator, waste disposal fees that fund the cost of managing household packaging waste, calculated by weight and, from the 2026-27 fee year, by recyclability grade.
RAM 2027 is PackUK's Recyclability Assessment Methodology, published 1 July 2026: the version large producers must use to rate household packaging red, amber or green for packaging supplied from 1 January 2027. It keeps the existing red/amber/green system rather than replacing it. It covers packaging placed on the market across the 1 January to 31 December 2027 period, with reporting deadlines of 1 October 2027 (H1) and 1 April 2028 (H2). RAM 1.1 remains in force for 2026 data in the meantime.
For 2026 packaging data (under RAM 1.1): first-half data is due 1 October 2026, second-half data is due 1 April 2027. These are the immediate deadlines producers need to hit before RAM 2027's own reporting cycle (1 October 2027 and 1 April 2028) begins.
From the 2026-27 scheme year, base per-tonne fees become modulated by recyclability grade rather than staying flat. PackUK's illustrative Year 2 figures showed a red rating carrying roughly a 20% uplift on the amber fee and a green rating an illustrative discount of around 9% — both described as illustrative and dependent on final producer data, not fixed figures.
A business is exempt if its annual UK turnover is £1 million or less, or if it handles 25 tonnes or less of packaging a year. Above that, small producers (turnover £1m-£2m handling over 25 tonnes, or turnover over £1m handling 25-50 tonnes) have lighter reporting duties; large producers (turnover over £2m and over 50 tonnes) register with their environmental regulator and pay modulated waste disposal fees to PackUK.
No. The EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), which we cover separately, imposes a Regulation-level Declaration of Conformity and PFAS limits for food-contact packaging from 12 August 2026, with reuse targets following from 1 January 2030. UK pEPR is a domestic producer-fee scheme with no Declaration-of-Conformity mechanism — a business selling into both the UK and EU markets runs two separate, mechanically different compliance tracks for the same packaging.
Recyclability grading, fee modulation and two overlapping reporting cycles is exactly the kind of detail that's easy to miss while running an EU PPWR track in parallel. We fold UK pEPR monitoring into the same market-access engagement as PPWR, CE/UKCA and RED cybersecurity work, so packaging compliance doesn't fall through the gap between two regimes that look similar but aren't.
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