What is packaging products?

Also called budgeted quantities. When your company registers for the first time you must state the quantities of packaging that you expect to make available on the Danish market in the current year. In DPA we use the expected quantities placed on the market to calculate how large a quantity of packaging waste each company is responsible to manage either in practice through our allocation system or financially through a handling fee.

Also called retail packaging: Packaging making up a grouping of sales units at a point of sale whether or not it is sold as such to a consumer or is only used, for instance, to fill the shelves at a point of sale. It must be possible to remove the packaging from the product without affecting its characteristics.

Packaging where the material is contaminated due to the product it contained. Management of the packaging must therefore be carried out according to the guidelines for hazardous waste and dangerous substances. Waste may, for instance, be harmful to human health, harmful to the environment, highly inflammable, corrosive, or toxic.

Companies may be allocated with a handling fee if their market share of total quantities of packaging made available on the market in Denmark is not large enough to have a geographical allocation. The handling fee covers the costs of management of the quantity of packaging made available by that company.

Packaging that – when it reaches its end of life – is expected to be sorted into material categories in view of recycling and recovery.

Packaging that cannot be recycled due to the state of the material (e.g. packaging for foodstuffs and composites) but that is not hazardous. Packaging in residual waste will normally be incinerated in a waste-to-energy facility and thereby be recovered.

Packaging must be reported under these materials:

• Aluminium
• Glass
• Ferrous metal
• Food and beverage cartons
• Cardboard
• Paper
• Plastic (Including Expanded polystyren (EPS))
• Wood

*Food and beverage cartons must always be registered and reported regardless of material

Other materials than the above is not subject to producer responsibility in Denmark.

The term producer is used for all types of companies that are subject to producer responsibility. The definition of a producer may vary depending on the product area. For packaging the company must meet a number of criteria defined in the Statutory Order on producer responsibility for packaging. The company (producer, importer, or distributor) must:

• Be established in Denmark and for the first time make transport packaging, reusable packaging, primary production packaging, or service packaging available on the Danish market
• Be established in Denmark and for the first time make filled packaging or packaging available on the Danish market, or
• Be established in another EU Member State or in a non-EU/EEC country and for the first time make transport packaging, reusable packaging, primary production packaging, service packaging, or filled packaging available directly to end-users (private or business) in Denmark through distance selling.

How to manage packaging after use and when it has become waste. The different packaging material categories must be broken down on three waste types in the producer register. See Ordinary packaging, Hazardous packaging, and Packaging in residual waste.

Reusable packaging is packaging designed for being refilled or reused for the same purpose for which it was conceived. Producers of reusable packaging are expected to have to register in the producer register from 1 January 2025.

Packaging making up together with a product a commodity that is sold at a point of sale to consumers or companies. This is the packaging that is closest to the product.

Packaging conceived and intended to be filled at the point of sale to the end-user. Service packaging also covers beverage containers and cups for beverages of single-use plastic that are sold empty and that are not conceived or intended to be filled at the point of sale.

Packaging conceived so as to facilitate handling and transport of a number of sales units or grouped packagings in order to prevent physical handling and transport damage.