Mandatory Packaging Reporting under the Resource Sustainability Act

The three tests - all must be met

A company must report if it:

1. conducts business supplying regulated goods in Singapore. This captures brand owners, manufacturers, importers and retailers such as supermarkets;
2. has annual turnover exceeding S$10 million. This is overall turnover for the calendar year, regardless of where it comes from - overseas sales count; and
3. imports or uses the specified packaging.

The turnover test catching worldwide revenue surprises companies with a small Singapore footprint but a large global business. If all three tests are met, you report.

What you submit

Part 1 - the packaging data report. The weight of packaging imported or used, broken down by:

• material type: plastic, paper, metal, glass, others
• form: for example carrier bags, bottles

Figures are rounded to the nearest whole number.

Part 2 - the 3R Plan. "3R" stands for Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. The plan sets out key initiatives, performance indicators and targets for the next three years, with progress updates in later submissions. Typical focus areas include:

• reducing the amount of packaging used
• collecting packaging for reuse or recycling
• consumer outreach
• using recycled content
• designing packaging so it can actually be recycled

The plan requirement is the point of the scheme. Data alone tells NEA how much packaging enters the market; the plan is what pushes a company to do something about it. Targets should therefore be specific enough to be checked against later.

Record keeping. Supporting documentation must be retained for 5 years.

When and where

Submissions go through the Waste and Resource Management System (WRMS). For the 2026 cycle, the window ran from 1 January to 31 March 2026, covering calendar year 2025 data. The pattern is a first-quarter window for the previous calendar year.

Legal basis

The Resource Sustainability Act 2019 and the Resource Sustainability (Packaging Reporting) Regulations 2020. Registration began in 2020 and annual submissions have run since 2021.

What is coming next

Mandatory Packaging Reporting is deliberately a first step. The Government has signalled a full packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) framework, under which producers would bear the cost of collecting and recycling the packaging they place on the market rather than only reporting it. That was originally targeted for no later than 2025.

Status note: whether the packaging EPR framework has commenced, and on what terms, was not confirmed during research. Mandatory Packaging Reporting remains the operative obligation as at the 2026 submission cycle. Confirm the current position with NEA before planning around EPR.

NEA has also signalled that the reporting criteria, including the S$10 million turnover threshold, may be reviewed as the EPR framework develops. Companies currently just below the threshold should not assume they stay out of scope indefinitely.

Penalties

Penalties for non-compliance were not confirmed against a primary source during research, and no penalty information appeared on the NEA page reviewed. Check directly with NEA rather than assuming the obligation is unenforced.