Packaging Rules a Small Business Needs to Know

Packaging is more regulated than most small sellers realise, and the obligations are growing rather than shrinking. The good news is that the shape of the rules is similar across most jurisdictions, even where the detail differs.

Producer responsibility, in principle

Most developed markets now make businesses that put packaging into circulation contribute to the cost of collecting and recycling it. The scheme names differ — extended producer responsibility, packaging waste regulations, eco-contributions — but the idea is consistent.

Three things usually determine whether it applies to you:

• How much packaging you handle in a year, by weight. Small businesses are often below the threshold, but not always.
• Your turnover. Many schemes exempt smaller businesses entirely.
• Your role. Whether you manufacture, import, brand or simply sell on changes your obligations.

The obligation, where it applies, is usually some combination of registering, reporting the weight of packaging you supplied, and paying a fee based on that weight and its recyclability.

Keep the weights, whether or not you report

The practical advice regardless of your current position: record the weight of packaging you buy, broken down by material.

Thresholds change and businesses grow. Reconstructing three years of packaging weights retrospectively is genuinely difficult; recording them as you order takes minutes. Your supplier invoices contain most of what you need.

Recyclability claims are regulated too

This catches people out more often than the reporting duties. Environmental claims on packaging are advertising claims, and misleading ones are actionable in most markets.

• “Recyclable” generally implies facilities exist for ordinary customers. If it can only be recycled at a specialist facility, unqualified use of the word is risky.
• “Compostable” almost always means industrial composting. Saying it without that qualification implies a home compost heap will do, which for most films is untrue.
• “Biodegradable” is the weakest claim of the three — almost everything biodegrades eventually. Several jurisdictions restrict it specifically because it means so little.
• “Eco-friendly” and “green” are vague enough to attract scrutiny rather than deflect it.

The safe approach is to state the fact rather than the virtue. “Made from 80% recycled content” is checkable and defensible. “Eco-friendly packaging” is neither.

Labelling

Several markets now require or encourage a standard recycling label telling the customer what to do with each component. Where it is voluntary it is still worth doing — it reduces contamination and it demonstrates good faith if anyone asks.

If you sell into more than one country, check each. Requirements differ, and packaging printed for one market may not satisfy another.

Where small sellers most often get caught

• Importing. Bringing packaged goods in from abroad frequently makes you the responsible party for that packaging, even though you did not choose it.
• Growing past a threshold without noticing, because nobody was tracking weights.
• Repeating a supplier's claim without checking it. If you print “recyclable” because your supplier said so, the claim is still yours.
• Selling into another country and assuming home rules apply.

A sensible position

Record your packaging weights by material from now on. Ask suppliers for material composition and recycled content in writing. State facts rather than adjectives on anything printed. And check your actual national scheme once a year, because this is an area where the rules are still moving.

We will supply material specifications and recycled content figures for anything in our range on request — those are the numbers you need for both reporting and claims.