In 2025, California continues to lead the way in packaging regulation, advancing the rollout of its two landmark laws; the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act (SB 54) and the Truth in Labelling for Recyclable Materials law (SB 343), as key compliance deadlines draw closer. Together, these measures create a new compliance...

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is already firmly in place across India for a number of waste streams, including plastics, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), and batteries. Under this system, producers are accountable for the collection, recycling, and environmentally sound disposal of the products they put on the market. Now, a new ...

​On 23 July 2025, Hong Kong's Legislative Council passed the 'Promotion of Recycling and Proper Disposal of Products (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2025' - a big step forward in building a stronger, more consistent foundation for Producer Responsibility Schemes (PRSs).Instead of creating separate laws for each regulated product, this new framework introd...

​Latin America: a cultural region where a common language meets a vast geographical area; a region united by the citizens speaking Spanish or Portuguese, except the language has evolved slightly differently in each country – as has the legislation for Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). 'Latin America' is often defined as the cultural region spanning ...

​Poland's long-anticipated Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) is set to go live on October 1st, 2025. This milestone follows the enactment of the Packaging and Packaging Waste Management Act in July 2023, which originally aimed for implementation in January 2025. The scheme marks a significant step towards aligning Poland with the EU's sustainability goals and c...

I joined Lorax EPI in September as an Environmental Compliance Researcher for my placement year. Many of my friends described their placements as repetitive and unchallenging, with lots of admin work. However, my experience here couldn't have been more different. Lorax has given me opportunities to grow, learn and take responsibility.When I first joined, ...

​If you're a large packaging producer in the UK, you've probably heard about the new Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) rules. From 1 January 2025, all household packaging must be assessed using something called the RAM. RAM stands for Recyclability Assessment Methodology. It's a system created by Defra for large producers to measure how recyclable t...

What is a Deposit Return Scheme?A Deposit Return Scheme is a recycling initiative designed to encourage people to return used beverage containers by charging a small refundable deposit. In practice, it often looks like this: When purchasing a drink, you (as a consumer) are charged an additional fee on any beverage bottle subject to the scheme. After consu...

​The European Union is making a significant move towards sustainable packaging, through the introduction of the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR). PPWR marks a transformative shift in how packaging is designed, labelled, utilised and disposed of across the EU.Currently, packaging labelling requirements vary widely between EU countries. While...

​Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS, are a group of synthetic chemicals. The US Environment Protection Agency have identified and recorded nearly 15,000 synthetic chemicals that belong to the group. However, they have been shown to display extreme persistence within the environment and organisms, leading them to be dubbed 'forever chemical...

​At Lorax EPI, sustainability isn't just a service we provide—it's a value we live by.While we spend our days helping global brands meet their environmental compliance goals, we also recognise the importance of leading by example, in our own operations. That's why we created The B Hive—our internal sustainability team dedicated to reducing our own environ...

​As the global push for circularity gains momentum, post-consumer recycled (PCR) content policies are emerging as key levers for change, none more so than in Australia. With governments introducing increasingly ambitious targets for recycled content in packaging and other materials, Australia is positioning itself as a leader in driving sustainable produc...

​Portugal is gearing up to introduce a national Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for single-use beverage containers in 2026, aiming to boost recycling rates and reduce waste. The system will be managed by SDR Portugal, a non-profit organization, with Sensoneo providing the digital infrastructure to support the scheme. Portugal's first DRS was initially planned...

​In March 2025, the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) published a 182-page report summarising the results of the 2024 stakeholder consultation on waste sortation labelling. The original stakeholder consultation, which ran from 2 September to 30 September 2024, sought to gather perspectives from industry experts on the potential design of t...

​Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws for packaging exist in five U.S. states: Maine, California, Oregon, Colorado, and Minnesota. These laws make producers financially and logistically responsible for managing packaging waste. Eco-modulation fees, which reduce costs for sustainable packaging choices, are a key feature. Maine was first (2021), foll...

​Producers selling packaged goods in the EU will no longer be able to put the Green Dot on their packaging.We've all seen the Green Dot: a green circle made of two arrows, normally placed on the corner of packaging. But what does it mean?The original idea behind placing the Green Dot on packaging was to show that the producer had paid their EPR fees to a ...