Mono-Material Mailing Bags: Cut Your EPR Fees on Mailers

The problem with bubble-lined mailers

Bubble-lined mailers do their job well, which is why they're everywhere. But under the UK's Recyclability Assessment Methodology (RAM), their construction is now a cost problem.

A bubble mailer bonds an outer layer to a plastic bubble cushioning layer. Because those layers can't be separated by hand, RAM assesses them together, as one composite unit — not as the individual materials. A paper-plus-plastic mailer with more than a small percentage of plastic is treated as a fibre-based composite, which carries the highest base fee of any material category. A fully plastic bubble mailer sits in the plastic category, also among the highest.

On top of the material category, recyclability adds a multiplier. Harder-to-recycle formats are rated red and pay 1.2× the base fee in 2026/27, rising to 1.6× in 2027/28 and 2.0× in 2028/29. So a bubble mailer can be hit twice: a high-fee material category and a rising red multiplier.

"But you can tear the layers apart" — does that help?

Some newer "recycle-ready" bubble mailers are deliberately built so the outer and the bubble layer can be pulled apart by hand. Under RAM, hand-separable components are assessed separately, so in principle each layer can earn its own rating.

In practice there are two catches. First, it only works if the customer actually separates the layers and puts each in the right stream — and manufacturers themselves caveat that real-world recyclability depends on local collection and sorting. Second, you're still placing plastic on the market, so that portion still sits in a higher-fee category and still has to be reported.

A mono-material paper bag sidesteps both: there's nothing to separate, and there's no plastic layer to report or pay a higher fee on.

How our mono-material paper mailing bags are assessed

Our paper mailing bags are built as a single paper component. The bag carries a polyethylene adhesive strip for sealing, and that strip sits below the RAM adhesive threshold for PE (3%) — so it doesn't change how the bag is assessed.

That means the bag is assessed under Paper and Board guidance, not as a composite. Paper is:

• a lower-fee material category than plastic or fibre-based composite, before recyclability is even applied;
• widely collected at kerbside across the UK, which supports a strong recyclability rating;
• a single stream for your customer — no separating layers, no mixed-material confusion.

We can point you to a documented RAM assessment for these bags. We describe them as assessed under Paper and Board guidance with the adhesive within RAM thresholds — not as "100% one material" or "guaranteed green," because those overstate what any paper bag with a seal can claim.

What you could save

The saving from switching a bubble mailer to a mono-material paper bag comes from two stacked effects:

1. Moving to a cheaper material category — out of composite/plastic, into paper.
2. Moving from a red multiplier to a green discount — and that gap grows every year as the red multiplier climbs from 1.2× to 2.0×.

Enter your monthly mailer volume in the calculator on the right of the page and we'll estimate the difference. For a precise figure, send us your current mailer spec and we'll model it against your actual ratings.