Comparing packaging EPR across markets without copying a conclusion

Start from the verified Polish baseline

Poland has a state register, one nine-digit number per entity covering every stream, a statutory duty to carry that number on business documents, a de minimis exemption at one tonne, an annual fee whose non-payment removes the entry, and competing private recovery organisations that publish no tariffs.

It is also the only one of these markets outside the euro. Every statutory amount is set in złoty, so any euro figure is a conversion that needs a rate and a date attached to it before it is worth comparing to anything.

Visual explainer

Compare the controls, not the familiar labels

The fields worth comparing are whether there is a state register or a scheme membership; whether the number is per entity or per stream; whether the charge is a published tariff or a statutory fee on a shortfall; who the debtor is; whether a national labelling duty exists; and what the annual calendar contains. Two countries can use the same English word for structurally different institutions.

A registration, a code or an estimate from one country is never evidence in another. The Polish registry number is not an equivalent of another market's identifier, and none of them discharges another Member State's obligation, whatever a form accepts.

Publish a comparison only when every source set is current

The approved sources behind this article establish the Polish position from primary texts. Figures for other markets move with tariff years and reform timetables, and are only worth publishing when each country's own current sources have been pulled and dated.

Where a decision is needed now, compare the obligations that can be evidenced today and treat everything else as an open question for review rather than a number to plan against. That is slower to write and considerably cheaper to be wrong about.