Packaging categorisation and system participation
What types of packaging are there? What are the statutory obligations that come with each of them?
Packaging law obligations of craft enterprises
Are you running a craft enterprise? Are you running a bakery, butchers or another artisanal food production business? Are you a carpenter, shoemaker, jeweller? Are you running an artisanal craftwork business? And are your products packaged when you hand them over to your customers? If the answer is ‘yes’, then you are considered to be a producer under German packaging law. That means you have certain obligations to fulfil.
Regardless of what type of packaging you use to distribute your goods commercially in Germany, you have to be registered with the LUCID Packaging Register. Depending on the packaging type, you might also be required to pay for the recycling of your packaging and report your packaging volumes. The Verpackungsgesetz (Packaging Act) establishes obligations that are binding on everyone. The obligations apply even if the products shipped on a commercial basis are not new, but used, repaired or processed.
Obligations for packaging subject to system participation: registration, participation, reporting
In artisanal food production and other craft enterprises, it is common for goods to be handed over to the customer in retail or service packaging. Both packaging types typically accumulate as waste with private final consumers. That is why you must pay for that packaging's recycling. This is called 'system participation'. Service packaging is always subject to system participation – without exception. There are three things you need to do to fulfil all of your obligations under packaging law:
Register with the LUCID Packaging Register.
Enter into a system participation agreement with a system operator. Please refer to this list for an overview of system operators.
You now have to regularly report your packaging volumes to both your system operator and the LUCID Packaging Register (data reporting).
Heads-up: If you are using service packaging to hand over your goods to a customer, there is a special provision available to you: you can buy 'pre-participated' unfilled service packaging from a supplier or wholesaler. Check the knowledge base dedicated to special provisions for service packaging to learn more. This special provision does not apply to other packaging types such as shipment packaging.
What is ...
... service packaging?
The Verpackungsgesetz classifies service packaging as retail packaging. For packaging to qualify as service packaging, it must be filled with goods at the point of sale. Service packaging serves to facilitate the handing over of goods to the customer. Examples include paper bags, pastry carriers, sausage trays, plastic or paper carrier bags, cake edge foils, food foils placed between cold cuts, plastic bowls and many more. It does not matter who fills the service packaging with goods. It even may be the customer who fills the packaging with goods at the point of sale, for example by placing their purchases into a plastic or paper bag for transport, pouring coffee into a takeaway cup or filling salad from a salad bar into a bowl.
... retail packaging (such as pre-packaged sales units)?
Retail packaging is typically offered to the private final consumer as a sales unit consisting of goods and packaging. Examples range from pre-packaged foodstuffs to paper cartons or wooden boxes for packaging wooden or forged products right after they have been manufactured so that they can be distributed to customers.
Heads-up: If you are manufacturing, packaging and distributing your products yourself, you are responsible for your retail packaging. In that case you are required to register with the LUCID Packaging Register, participate your packaging with a system and report your packaging volumes.
What you need to know
Shipment packaging ...
- facilitates the shipment of goods to final consumers
- usually accumulates as waste with private households or comparable sources of waste generation
- is subject to system participation (few exceptions apply)
Transport packaging ...
- serves to facilitate the transportation of goods between individual distributors and to prevent damage from occurring during transit
- typically does not accumulate as waste with private final consumers and instead remains with retailers
- is not subject to system participation
To learn more about the different packaging types and the obligations that come with each of them, check out our knowledge base dedicated to packaging types.
If you are procuring packaged goods directly from the manufacturer or via a wholesaler, you are required to verify that your business partner has complied with packaging law obligations. Use the public register of producers to find out if your business partner has registered with the LUCID Packaging Register. If your business partner has not registered, the goods in question are automatically banned from distribution under German packaging law. In other words: you must not sell them. You are also required to verify that your business partner has paid for the recycling of their retail, grouped or shipment packaging by concluding a system participation agreement. But this cannot be checked in the public register of producers. There are no legal provisions for how to verify system participation. One way to verify if for system operators to provide their clients with a confirmation that they have entered into a system participation agreement.
Reusable packaging is not subject to system participation. If you are using reusable packaging, you are required to register with the LUCID Packaging Register. In the register, you have to indicate that you are using reusable packaging to hand over your products. The requirements for a reusables scheme are regulated by law. To learn more about the applicable obligations, check our knowledge base dedicated to packaging types.
A level playing field is key if we want to protect our environment. Companies must ensure that their packaging harms the environment as little as possible. This is referred to as assuming 'producer responsibility', which governed by the Verpackungsgesetz (Packaging Act). Where packaging cannot be prevented, all market players that distribute packaged goods must be registered with the LUCID Packaging Register. Another factor is that 'high-quality' recycling of packaging waste is only possible in a financially sound market. That is why you are required to pay for the recycling of your retail, grouped or shipment packaging that is subject to system participation by concluding a 'system participation agreement' with a system operator.
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