Recycling Packaging
Packaging is a wonderful thing...but it is all destined for the bin
It keeps products clean, fresh, dry (or wet) and ready to use. We use it to contain, wrap, transport, handle, protect, promote and market our products. We would have a very different world without packaging....no bottles of coke, no hygenic medical equipment, no neat and tidy reams of paper. We even use packaging to protect packaging!
Wooden packaging crates
In 1994, the EU finally agreed about how it was going to deal with the problem of waste packaging1. As packaging's sole purpose is to protect a product, it will be discarded, leading to a lot of rubbish. The EU 'waste hierarchy' shows the desired order of waste handling. Recycling comes before energy recovery (also known as incineration or thermal treatment).
EU waste hierarchy
This hierarchy can be translated into the business model too. All businesses should address their waste: it is a triple cost to the business - a cost to purchase, process and remove from the premises. If you can reduce your waste, it adds significantly to the value of the business - it is estimated as much as four per cent.
Reuse is the goal, and that means using things like pallets and there are businesses that collect cardboard boxes, tidy them up and sell them on for another life as a cardboard box!
Recycling is seen and marketed as the holy grail. It is the popular saviour to the waste problem - it's easier for a consumer society to recycle than to reduce its waste production.
Disposal to landfill is the final option, either because they are running out of space, or because they are leaking. Properly engineered landfills which have a modern management system can accept all sorts of waste - both hazardous and non-hazardous.
But back to packaging...
The ground-breaking concept for this Directive was that it was based on 'producer responsibility' i.e. that the business that made the product was responsible for the recovery of the waste2. Member States implement the Directive as national legislation - Poland's targets for 2007 are: 50 percent recovery and 25 percent recycling.
So what do businesses or producers have to do? The significant pieces of Polish packaging legislation were introduced on May 11, 2001 and they placed obligations with regard to the management of packaging and packaging waste, product fee and deposit fee3. Producers and importers of packaged goods (entrepreneurs) are obligated to:
- Recover and recycle packaging waste;
- Use packaging conforming to the requirements;
- Mark the packaging; and
- Make reports.
Most governments' legislation offers two choices - a paddle your own canoe option or let somebody else paddle option. In Poland, there are three options, but possibly only two soon, as the legislation is undergoing a review. All options incur a cost to recover packaging waste. They are:
- Join a Recovery Organization;
- Join a Recovery Orgaization and organize for its waste to be recovered. It may be cheaper to negotiate directly with the recycler; and
- Do nothing and pay significantly more directly to the Marshal's office.
The revision may remove the middle option, to make things easier to police. Poland has about 35 Recovery Organizations, and they too have to be policed. They take on the legal obligation of the Entrepreneur.
Directive states that the packaging should use the fewest resources to perform its function as a piece of packaging. This however is a very hard piece of legislation to monitor and police, for obvious reasons... you only have to look at toys to see how difficult this is!
Only one Recovery Organization uses the Green Dot. It is not a mandatory mark, but it has been monopolised and marketed as a recycling symbol - it is not! It does indicate that the organization that uses it on its packaging has paid some money for some packaging to be recycled, somewhere.
The reports detail the weight and type of packaging that is handled or imported. These are essential as without this information, the obligation cannot be calculated. The problems arise as businesses have to get a system for establishing, tracking gathering the weights of packaging used in their business. This can be a phenomenally difficult and onerous task and can take weeks or months, depending on the complexity of the product range.
NIPAK and what we do
NIPAK offers three services:
- It is a Recovery Organization (called a compliance scheme in Northern Ireland);
- It offers data management services;
- It offers waste management consultancy services.
NIPAK is in its second year of taking on businesses obligations, though its principals have over 15 years combined experience in this field. As part of our service, we can calculate our member's packaging obligations. To do this we run a database that has details of the packaging around everything from a piece of computer equipment to spare parts to juice cartons to a piece of furniture.
This database has saved our members months of work and thousands of dollars or euro. It could save you thousands of złotych! As we come with a consultancy background, we can offer independent advice - a recent example with a client was that we spoke with them about their waste and have added in excess of L6,000 per annum to their bottom line - perhaps we can do the same for your business too.
For further information, please contact:
Simon Stringer, Managing Director,
NIPAK Ltd
on Tel: (028) 9127 1525
or by email: mailtoinfo@nipak.co.uk
website at www.nipak.co.uk
Special notes
- These regulations are known as 'The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1999 (and as amended)' and are based on the 1994 European Directive. They place a legal requirement on a wide range of businesses to recycle and recover packaging.
- The Regulations apply if: Your business has a turnover in excess of L2 million p.a. AND you import OR pass on to customers over 50 tonnes of packaging a year (When considering this, remember to include pallets and packing cases as well as the primary packaging which remains with your product until it is used) AND you operate in Northern Ireland
If the Regulations apply you have three obligations:
- Register annually in April with the Environment and Heritage Service (EHS)
- Arrange for the appropriate quantities of packaging to be recovered or recycled
- Provide acceptable evidence to show this has been done
There are two ways to fulfill these obligations:
- Register directly with the appropriate Agency and make the necessary arrangements 'in house'.
- Join a compliance scheme, such as NIPAK. We will take over your obligations and guide you through all the necessary processes.
1 Directive 94/62/EC on packaging and packaging waste, updated by the Directive 04/12/EC
2 Recovery comprises any form of secondary use of a waste before disposal, and so incineration with energy recovery, composting or recycling are all forms of recovery. The Directive dictates recovery and recycling targets.
3 DZ.U.2001 No.63 Item 638 & 639, DZ.U.2003 No.7 Item 78
It keeps products clean, fresh, dry (or wet) and ready to use. We use it to contain, wrap, transport, handle, protect, promote and market our products. We would have a very different world without packaging....no bottles of coke, no hygenic medical equipment, no neat and tidy reams of paper. We even use packaging to protect packaging!
Wooden packaging crates
In 1994, the EU finally agreed about how it was going to deal with the problem of waste packaging1. As packaging's sole purpose is to protect a product, it will be discarded, leading to a lot of rubbish. The EU 'waste hierarchy' shows the desired order of waste handling. Recycling comes before energy recovery (also known as incineration or thermal treatment).
EU waste hierarchy
This hierarchy can be translated into the business model too. All businesses should address their waste: it is a triple cost to the business - a cost to purchase, process and remove from the premises. If you can reduce your waste, it adds significantly to the value of the business - it is estimated as much as four per cent.
Reuse is the goal, and that means using things like pallets and there are businesses that collect cardboard boxes, tidy them up and sell them on for another life as a cardboard box!
Recycling is seen and marketed as the holy grail. It is the popular saviour to the waste problem - it's easier for a consumer society to recycle than to reduce its waste production.
Disposal to landfill is the final option, either because they are running out of space, or because they are leaking. Properly engineered landfills which have a modern management system can accept all sorts of waste - both hazardous and non-hazardous.
But back to packaging...
The ground-breaking concept for this Directive was that it was based on 'producer responsibility' i.e. that the business that made the product was responsible for the recovery of the waste2. Member States implement the Directive as national legislation - Poland's targets for 2007 are: 50 percent recovery and 25 percent recycling.
So what do businesses or producers have to do? The significant pieces of Polish packaging legislation were introduced on May 11, 2001 and they placed obligations with regard to the management of packaging and packaging waste, product fee and deposit fee3. Producers and importers of packaged goods (entrepreneurs) are obligated to:
- Recover and recycle packaging waste;
- Use packaging conforming to the requirements;
- Mark the packaging; and
- Make reports.
Most governments' legislation offers two choices - a paddle your own canoe option or let somebody else paddle option. In Poland, there are three options, but possibly only two soon, as the legislation is undergoing a review. All options incur a cost to recover packaging waste. They are:
- Join a Recovery Organization;
- Join a Recovery Orgaization and organize for its waste to be recovered. It may be cheaper to negotiate directly with the recycler; and
- Do nothing and pay significantly more directly to the Marshal's office.
The revision may remove the middle option, to make things easier to police. Poland has about 35 Recovery Organizations, and they too have to be policed. They take on the legal obligation of the Entrepreneur.
Directive states that the packaging should use the fewest resources to perform its function as a piece of packaging. This however is a very hard piece of legislation to monitor and police, for obvious reasons... you only have to look at toys to see how difficult this is!
Only one Recovery Organization uses the Green Dot. It is not a mandatory mark, but it has been monopolised and marketed as a recycling symbol - it is not! It does indicate that the organization that uses it on its packaging has paid some money for some packaging to be recycled, somewhere.
The reports detail the weight and type of packaging that is handled or imported. These are essential as without this information, the obligation cannot be calculated. The problems arise as businesses have to get a system for establishing, tracking gathering the weights of packaging used in their business. This can be a phenomenally difficult and onerous task and can take weeks or months, depending on the complexity of the product range.
NIPAK and what we do
NIPAK offers three services:
- It is a Recovery Organization (called a compliance scheme in Northern Ireland);
- It offers data management services;
- It offers waste management consultancy services.
NIPAK is in its second year of taking on businesses obligations, though its principals have over 15 years combined experience in this field. As part of our service, we can calculate our member's packaging obligations. To do this we run a database that has details of the packaging around everything from a piece of computer equipment to spare parts to juice cartons to a piece of furniture.
This database has saved our members months of work and thousands of dollars or euro. It could save you thousands of złotych! As we come with a consultancy background, we can offer independent advice - a recent example with a client was that we spoke with them about their waste and have added in excess of L6,000 per annum to their bottom line - perhaps we can do the same for your business too.
For further information, please contact:
Simon Stringer, Managing Director,
NIPAK Ltd
on Tel: (028) 9127 1525
or by email: mailtoinfo@nipak.co.uk
website at www.nipak.co.uk
Special notes
- These regulations are known as 'The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1999 (and as amended)' and are based on the 1994 European Directive. They place a legal requirement on a wide range of businesses to recycle and recover packaging.
- The Regulations apply if: Your business has a turnover in excess of L2 million p.a. AND you import OR pass on to customers over 50 tonnes of packaging a year (When considering this, remember to include pallets and packing cases as well as the primary packaging which remains with your product until it is used) AND you operate in Northern Ireland
If the Regulations apply you have three obligations:
- Register annually in April with the Environment and Heritage Service (EHS)
- Arrange for the appropriate quantities of packaging to be recovered or recycled
- Provide acceptable evidence to show this has been done
There are two ways to fulfill these obligations:
- Register directly with the appropriate Agency and make the necessary arrangements 'in house'.
- Join a compliance scheme, such as NIPAK. We will take over your obligations and guide you through all the necessary processes.
1 Directive 94/62/EC on packaging and packaging waste, updated by the Directive 04/12/EC
2 Recovery comprises any form of secondary use of a waste before disposal, and so incineration with energy recovery, composting or recycling are all forms of recovery. The Directive dictates recovery and recycling targets.
3 DZ.U.2001 No.63 Item 638 & 639, DZ.U.2003 No.7 Item 78
