How we recover your packaging
Our EPR fees
What are EPR fees?
An Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) fee is the price paid by a producer to the Producer Responsibility Organisation/system operator in return for carrying out some of the producer’s responsibilities when it comes to the stewardship of their packaging materials.
Petco’s EPR fees are guided by the job of work needed to meet our members’ corporate and legislated targets. The fees for the packaging materials for which we administer EPR schemes vary according to the different categories of identified products listed by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE).
Identified products for which we administer EPR schemes
Fees for the identified products for which Petco administers schemes:
Identified products | DFFE category of identified products | 2026 EPR fee (total cost/tonne) |
|---|---|---|
PET beverage bottles | PET beverage bottles | R773 |
PET bottles – home and personal care | Single use products – PET | R773 |
PET bottles – edible oil | Plastic PET oil bottles | R773 |
PET bottles and jars – food | Single use products – PET | R773 |
Thermoform PET | Plastic PET thermoformed | R837 |
PET shrink sleeves | PET flexibles | R1231 |
PET strapping (closed loop) | PET flexibles | R392 |
BOPP labels | Polyolefin flexibles | R838 |
HDPE and PP closures | Polyolefin rigids | R838 |
Liquid board packaging | Liquid board packaging | R850 |
According to Section 18 of the National Environmental Management: Waste Act (NEMWA), the Extended Producer Responsibility fee must be based on nett cost recovery.
This includes a differentiated rate per category of product or class of product, and depends on the following:
- Weight of product
- Ease of recyclability
- Current demand for the material for recycling purposes
- Costs of establishing a collection system for the identified product
- Collection, transport, storage and treatment costs for separately collected waste
- Administrative costs
- Costs for public communication (raising awareness of waste prevention, litter reduction, separate collection, and other important issues)
- Costs for the appropriate surveillance of the system (including auditing)
- And the deduction of revenues generated from recycled material sales.