Extended producer responsibility for packaging: generate a packaging data file

If you’re an organisation that supplies packaging to consumers and businesses in the UK, you may have to take action to comply with extended producer responsibility (EPR) for packaging.

You may need to collect and submit data about packaging you’ve supplied through the UK market, or any filled packaging you have imported and discarded in the UK.

Find out if you need to collect and report your packaging data.

If you do have to report packaging data you can use this tool to either:

• generate a valid packaging data file
• check how your file should be structured before creating one yourself

It will open as a spreadsheet with three tabs in most spreadsheet software.

Using the generator

1. Prepare your data

There is guidance that explains:

• what data you need to collect
• how to create your file for extended producer responsibility

This tool will generate the codes and enforce the rules explained in the guidance about creating your file.

2. Enter your data

Go to the ‘Enter your data’ tab in the spreadsheet.

Enter your first record on the row under the headers. Start with column B, ‘Organisation ID’.

Select from the drop-down list in any field where one is available. For fields without a dropdown list, check the guidance explaining how to create your file for extended producer responsibility to find the correct format.

If you need to submit more than one record:

• use a new row for each record
• enter data one row at a time
• do not leave blank rows between records

If you save the file while you’re working on it, keep the original format - it should be an ODS (open document spreadsheet) file.

3. Generate a file

When you’ve entered all your records, check the number under ‘Missing Rows in your output’ (cell A2). It will be one less than the number of records you’ve entered - for example, if you’ve got 5 rows of records, it should be 4.

This tells you how many rows you’ll have to add in the following steps.

1. Switch to the ‘Your output’ tab of the spreadsheet.
2. Click row 2 - first row under the header row - to select the whole row and then copy it.
3. Select exactly the number of rows you need to add - for example, if ‘Missing Rows in your output’ was ‘4’, select rows 3 to 6.
4. Paste the formula from your copied row 2 into these rows - ‘paste formula’ is usually available in the ‘edit’ menu of spreadsheet software, under ‘paste special’

Now:

• ‘Missing rows in your output’ on the ‘Enter your data’ tab should be zero
• the ‘Enter your data’ and ‘Your output’ tabs should have the same number of active rows, ignoring the header row in ‘Enter your data’

If the number is still greater than zero, check that you have copied the formula from the second row of ‘Your output’ to enough additional rows.

4. Check your data

If you’ve made any errors, they will be highlighted in the ‘Your output’ tab.

Errors include things like:

• missing information
• codes that cannot be used together - for example, if your organisation size is ‘Large (L)’, you cannot select ‘small organisation packaging (SP)’ for packaging type
• you’ve completed fields that should be empty - for example, giving a number for ‘Quantity (units)’ for anything other than drinks containers

Correct these errors before exporting your file. Check the guidance on how to create your file for extended producer responsibility if you need help understanding the error.

5. Export the file

You should only export your data once you have completely finished and will not need to edit it again.

Make sure you are on the ‘Your output’ tab.

Save the file using ‘Save as’. You must save it in the CSV (comma separated values) format.

You can submit this CSV file to the ‘report packaging data’ service.