Léko: packaging EPR costs outpace recycling gains as commercial packaging rules arrive in 2027

Packaging compliance is moving from the sustainability department to the procurement desk as extended producer responsibility (EPR) charges climb and European Union packaging rules tighten. In an interview with decision-achats.fr, Marion Halby, managing director of the French eco-organisation Léko, said the economic consequences of packaging choices now have to be built into buyers tender specifications rather than handled after the fact.

Léko is accredited by the French state to support companies in meeting their EPR obligations for packaging and paper. It groups more than 80,000 member companies and, according to decision-achats.fr, supported the recycling of close to 110,000 tonnes of packaging and paper in 2025. From 2027 the organisation will extend its activity to commercial packaging, bringing a new category of market participants into the scheme.

Contributions rising faster than recycling performance

Halby said Léko tracks the system through the EPR cost per tonne of household packaging recycled, and that contributions are rising faster than performance. She described this as a decoupling between the role of the eco-organisation and the concrete operational service delivered to the company placing goods on the market.

Packaging obligations now represent significant amounts and can weigh heavily on the costs attached to products sold in packaged form, making them a genuine economic issue for companies. Those costs vary considerably with the eco-design strategy adopted — prevention, source reduction or improved recyclability — which is why Halby argues procurement departments need to price packaging decisions upstream.

A recycling market valued at 7 billion euros a year

Mechanical recycling of packaging in France alone represents an estimated potential of 7 billion euros per year, according to Halby. With new European requirements set to sharply increase demand for recycled material, she framed domestic recycling capacity as both an environmental obligation and an industrial opportunity: new infrastructure, local jobs, new value chains and reduced dependence on imported raw or recycled materials.

The investment would have to be carried by waste operators, regenerators and the plastics industry, potentially supported by eco-organisation schemes or by Ademe, the French environment agency. Funding is not the binding constraint, Halby said — securing demand is. Industrial players need enough visibility to commit the capital required for recycling capacity to actually develop.

Three conditions were set out for recycled materials to become genuinely competitive: better quality to meet industrial specifications and market needs, economies of scale from higher recycled volumes and more structured supply chains, and an economic and regulatory framework that addresses imports of recycled raw materials, notably from Asia, as well as the purchase of virgin plastic. For buyers looking to secure future supply, Halby recommended leaning on their eco-organisation, working directly with recyclers and anticipating changes to their material specifications.

Reuse economics hinge on volume

The price gap between reuse and single use still has to be compensated for reuse to be attractive enough to producers, Halby said, though she expects the gap to narrow as reuse develops. Reuse is primarily a logistics business: the cost covers collection, sorting, transport, washing, return to market and communication around the programme.

There is no universal threshold at which a reuse loop becomes economically relevant, and in some cases reuse is already cheaper than single use. Each step in the chain — collection, transport, sorting, washing and redistribution — costs a few cents; individually limited, these costs accumulate and weigh on the competitiveness of reuse. France already has a washing infrastructure network developed enough to support deployment, but it will need reinforcement and optimisation to absorb higher volumes.

Pending an economic equilibrium estimated at around 150 million bottles reused per year, Léko is financing part of the additional cost of reuse. Its experiment is currently limited to Léko members, and Halby said support needs to be harmonised and extended to all operators and market placers. Return rates will also have to rise substantially to secure the volumes loops require. Standardising formats would significantly cut logistics costs tied to sorting and washing, without uniformising brands, which keep their identity through labels and graphic design, as tins and cans already show.

New obligations from 2027

Companies brought into the commercial packaging EPR will have to choose an eco-organisation and involve their procurement function in comparing offers from accredited bodies. They will need to estimate their contribution costs alongside any savings generated by lower waste-management spending, and to identify precisely which packaging falls within the new scope.

Halby acknowledged it is a new charge for companies placing packaging on the market, and said whether that cost becomes part of commercial negotiations will be settled in supplier relations.