Ecoembes fees explained: what you'll actually pay per material

The question we hear most after "do I really have to register?" is "fine — what will it cost me?". The honest answer: for most small and mid-size sellers, less than feared. Here's how the fees actually work.

Two costs, one invoice confusion

Sellers often lump together two very different things:

• Service fees — what you pay a provider like us for representation, registration, and declarations. Flat, annual, predictable.
• Recycling fees — what the SCRAP (collective scheme) charges to finance actual collection and recycling. Variable, per kilogram, per material.

The recycling fees are a pass-through: they go to the scheme, not to your provider. Any provider marking them up should make you suspicious.

The Punto Verde logic

Ecoembes — Spain's main scheme for household packaging — charges under the "Punto Verde" tariff system: a rate per kilogram that depends on the material, reflecting how expensive it is to collect and recycle. Indicative rates:

Two worked examples

The cardboard-first seller

Say you ship 4,000 parcels a year, averaging 150 g of cardboard and 10 g of plastic film each. That's 600 kg of cardboard (~€75) and 40 kg of film (~€25–50). Total recycling fees: roughly €100–125/year.

The plastic-heavy seller

Ship the same 4,000 parcels but with poly mailers and bubble wrap — say 50 g of film per parcel — and the film alone is 200 kg at €0.53–1.28/kg: €105–255/year, plus whatever cardboard you use. Material choices show up directly on this invoice.

Minimums and small sellers

Schemes apply minimum annual fees — typically in the €40–50 per stream range. So even a very small seller should budget at least that, but rarely much more if the packaging is mostly paper-based.

Three ways to keep fees down

• Swap film for paper where you can — the per-kg difference is up to 10×.
• Right-size your boxes — lighter packaging is cheaper packaging, on this invoice and on shipping.
• Measure once, properly — defensible per-unit weights avoid over-declaring "to be safe".

During onboarding we build your material inventory with you, so your declaration — and your fees — reflect what you actually ship.

Estimate your own mix: the EPR cost calculator combines these tariffs with our flat service fees — pick your materials and volume, get an honest first-year range in about 60 seconds.