Sustainable Packaging & EPR Compliance worked example

Packaging Recovery Rate at 54% recovery target achieved: a worked example

Suppose recovery target achieved falls to 54%. This page works the full calculation at that level so you can see exactly which result moves and by how much. Estimate the cost of meeting a packaging recovery-rate target on the tonnage you place on the market.

The inputs for this scenario

  • Packaging Tonnage Placed: 820 tonnes/yr (held at the documented default)
  • Recovery Cost per Tonne: 145 $/tonne (held at the documented default)
  • Recovery Target Achieved: 54 % (the input this scenario stresses; the baseline uses 75)
  • Reporting & Audit Fee: 6,000 $ (held at the documented default)

Working through the calculation

  • The calculation starts from the formula this tool documents: Recovery cost = tonnage placed x recovery cost per tonne x recovery target achieved + reporting fee.
  • Total packaging recovery rate cost works out to 70,206 $ at these inputs, and this is the headline figure for the scenario.
  • Packaging recovery rate cost per unit works out to 85.62 $ / piece at these inputs.
  • Variable packaging recovery rate cost works out to 64,206 $ at these inputs.
  • Fixed packaging recovery rate adder works out to 6,000 $ at these inputs.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where recovery target achieved sits at 75% and the headline result is 95,175 $, this scenario comes in 26.23% below the baseline at 70,206 $.
  • It multiplies tonnage placed by the recovery cost per tonne and the target-achieved percentage, adds the fixed reporting fee, and divides by tonnage for a per-tonne cost. When the numbers land here, the stressed input is the lever to work; the walkthrough above shows exactly how much each output recovers as it climbs back toward the baseline.

Results at a glance

  • Total packaging recovery rate cost: 70,206 $ (headline result)
  • Packaging recovery rate cost per unit: 85.62 $ / piece
  • Variable packaging recovery rate cost: 64,206 $
  • Fixed packaging recovery rate adder: 6,000 $

Run it with your numbers

  • To rerun this with your own numbers, open the live Packaging Recovery Rate calculator, set recovery target achieved to your actual value, and adjust the remaining inputs to match your operation.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.