France has one of the broadest Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) frameworks in Europe. Beyond the familiar streams (like packaging, WEEE, and batteries), France also applies EPR to a wide range of product categories – so it’s quite common for companies to discover additional obligations once they start selling into the French market.

The French government notes that there are 21 EPR streams (“filières REP”) in place today.

What are “extra” EPR streams?

In simple terms, these are product-specific take-back and recycling schemes that sit alongside the classic EPR topics. If you manufacture, import, or place certain products on the French market for the first time, you may need to join the relevant scheme, report quantities, and finance end-of-life management via eco-fees.

Examples of France-specific (or less expected) EPR streams

Depending on what you sell, you may encounter EPR obligations for categories such as:

• Toys
• DIY and gardening equipment / items (“Articles de bricolage et de jardin”)
• Sports and leisure goods (“Articles de sport et de loisirs”)
• Lubricating oils (“Huiles lubrifiantes”)
• Other streams also exist on the ADEME portal (France’s official EPR stream information site), including areas like furniture elements and boats, among others.

The important point isn’t memorising the list – it’s knowing that France may treat your products as part of a dedicated EPR stream even when other countries don’t.

What compliance usually looks like in practice

Most companies don’t set up their own national take-back system. Instead, they typically:

1. Identify the relevant EPR stream(s) for their products
2. Join an approved eco-organisation
3. Obtain a Unique Identifier (IDU) for each applicable stream and keep it available for business partners when requested.
4. Submit an annual declaration (volumes placed on the market, by stream/material categories as applicable) and pay the corresponding eco-contributions.

That’s the core rhythm: scope → register → declare → keep evidence tidy.

Why this matters for international and multi-channel sellers

These “extra” streams come up most often for businesses that:

• sell a broad catalogue,
• operate private label / reseller-brand models,
• expand into France via distributors and marketplaces,
• have product teams that don’t expect “non-obvious” EPR categories like toys or DIY/garden items.

The good news is that once the scoping is done, ongoing compliance is usually very manageable – especially with a clean product-to-stream mapping and a repeatable reporting process.

How Viron helps

Viron helps companies selling into France (and across the EU) stay on top of these additional EPR streams without turning it into a heavy internal project. We support scope checks, eco-organisation coordination, registrations/IDU handling, reporting setup, and ongoing compliance management – so you can expand into France with clarity and keep operations running smoothly.