The roadmap provides producers and industry with a forward look at an expected timeline for milestones in Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging (pEPR) guidance, deadlines and updates.
PackUK emphasised that “all timings in the roadmap are subject to change.”
PRO to be appointed in March 2026
The roadmap confirmed that a Producer Responsibility Organisation (PRO) will be appointed in March 2026.
The PRO will be responsible for the management of, taking on many of the functions of scheme administrator PackUK.
In July 2025, it was announced that Valpak, the Packaging Scheme Forum, and a joint bid from the Industry Council for Packaging and the Environment (INCPEN) and the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) were taken through to the next round of the PRO appointment process.
The next phase has focused on industry engagement and ran across summer 2025 – with the formal bidding phase in autumn and winter this year.
Material-specific guidance
The roadmap, which PackUK says is intended as a “living plan,” also outlined annual policy alignment reviews, RAM publication dates, producer deadlines and quarterly meetings of the RAM Technical Advisory Committee (TAC).
The roadmap also sets out a rolling programme of materials-specific reviews. These include:
- Flexible plastics guidance review in late 2026, ahead of Simpler Recycling rollout
- Rigid plastics guidance review in early 2027
- Printing inks and security tags review in Q3 2027, assessing recyclability impacts
- Glass guidance review in 2028, followed by paper and board guidance later that year
- Bioplastics and compostables review in mid-2029
Alice Harlock, Director of Technical and Member Services at OPRL, said: “Mapping out key dates and focus areas will be really useful in helping to set realistic expectations for our members.
“As England-wide collections come into force through Simpler Recycling, flexible plastics will become easier to recycle. This has an impact on labelling, as well as RAM status.
“OPRL will be monitoring all the planned reviews and subsequent changes, in order to advise our members and update our labels going forward.”
Patrick Brighty, Head of Recycling Policy at the ESA, added: “ESA welcomes the publication of the RAM roadmap – a five-year forward look is helpful for the whole value chain to forecast.
“It is also positive to see PackUK’s commitment to review the v1.0 omissions from the v1.1. RAM, as stronger guidance on food contamination is urgently needed.”
Additionally, the roadmap schedules reviews of guidance on food contamination, aluminium and steel, and wood packaging towards the end of the decade.
If a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for PET plastic, aluminium and steel drinks containers is not operational by that date, producers of these materials will instead become subject to pEPR obligations.
Brighty added: “However, ESA remains concerned that the RAM is fundamentally a technical recyclability assessment, rather than one focused on practicable recyclability.
“To address this, the RAM must focus on outcomes – factoring in whether infrastructure capacity is available to process each format fully effectively and whether there are stable end markets for each material.”
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