Licence Fees
The costs of participation in the respective national recovery systems for packaging and packaging waste may differ.
There are several factors affecting fee levels which should be taken into account when comparing the relative costs of compliance across various European schemes.
Major factors influencing relative compliance costs include the following:
- Existing national collection and recovery infrastructure in the waste management sector – both for packaging waste as well as other waste streams – e.g. residual and organic waste.
- The source of packaging used to meet national recycling targets (household only or all packaging, including industrial and transport packaging) – household packaging waste is more expensive to collect and recover than packaging waste arising at production or retail outlets.
- The proportionate share of costs which industry bears – some schemes meet 100% cost of collection and recovery cost, while others only pay a share thereof, and the rest is paid by the municipalities/fees from consumers.
- National recycling targets and the effect of derogations for some member states.
- Collection system used – bring systems are generally less expensive than kerbside collection from households.
- Geographic location and population density – remote and sparsely populated regions will generally be more difficult and expensive to collect from.
- Enforcement influences costs – the more companies participate in the scheme and the lower the rate of free-rides, the greater the spread of the cost base, and the lower the cost for the individual company.
- Labour costs and general overheads differ depending on the prevailing local economic conditions.
- National waste legislation and enforcement – some countries have a comprehensive landfill ban in effect, while others still are striving to manage largely unstructured waste disposal.
Download the full list of license fees per organisation here
Last updated: February 2024
If the company decides to use another authorized recycling solution but signs a separate contract for the use of the Green Dot with the local ‘Green Dot’ organisation, the fee to be paid will only concern the licence of the trademark.
