How RAM scoring works

A product's RAM rating is built up from its packaging components - the same components you already recorded for EPR fees. This page explains how each component is rated, how those combine into one pack rating, and where the result appears.

The RAM card on a product. The overall rating and green percentage sit at the top; each packaging component is rated below.

From components to a rating

Scoring runs in three steps:

1. Rate each component. Each packaging component's material is looked up in the brain's cited RAM criteria and given a rating:

   Rating	Meaning
   🟢 Green	The material family is accepted for recycling.
   🟠 Amber	Accepted only conditionally.
   🔴 Red	Not accepted.
   ⚪ Assess	The brain holds no criterion for this material - an honest unknown.

   Where a material has several constructions, the most conservative (worst) is used as its family default.

2. Roll up to the pack. The component ratings combine into one pack rating:

   Pack rating	When
   🔴 Red	Any rated component is red.
   🟢 Green	Every rated component is green.
   🟠 Amber	Otherwise (a mix, with no red).

   Components rated assess are left out of the roll-up but counted and flagged, so an unknown never quietly becomes a green.

3. Summarise. Alongside the rating, Oblifee reports a green percentage - the share of graded packaging weight that is green - as a readable headline, plus a count of any components still to assess.

The automatic-red rule

Independently of the four stages, packaging that contains certain substances or problem constructions is automatically red. The card surfaces this rule so you can check your pack against it directly.

:::note Worst component wins Because any red component makes the whole pack red, a single problem material - a metallised film, a carbon-black tray, an unrecyclable closure - drags an otherwise recyclable pack down. That is deliberate: the fee follows the weakest link. :::

Where it appears

The RAM rating shows on each product page, in the recyclability card (when the RAM module is enabled for your workspace). The card shows:

• the overall rating badge for the pack;
• the green percentage and any assess count;
• a per-component breakdown - component, material, weight and its rating.

The same scoring engine powers the new-product fee estimator, so a saved product is rated exactly as an uploaded packaging spec would be - the numbers are consistent wherever you see them.

:::info Rate it from real data The score needs packaging components with a material and a weight. A product with no packaging yet shows no rating - add its components and the card fills in. :::

Where to go next

• Improving a score - move a product from red or amber to green.
• Recyclability (RAM) overview - the methodology and why it matters.
• Fees & eco-modulation - how the rating changes your UK fee.