Covered packaging
All packaging is covered by the producer responsibility, except for packaging covered by the deposit and return system.
*Please note that plastic packaging may also be covered by the producer responsibility for certain single-use plastic products, read more here.
**Packaging covered by the deposit and the return system does not need to be registered.
Definition of packaging types
All products of any kind and material used for packaging, protection, handling, delivery and presentation of goods.
Read more about the different types of packaging in the executive order on packaging.
Packaging designed in such a way that at the point of sale it constitutes a sales unit for the final user or consumer.
For example, a shampoo bottle, a meat tray, a blister pack for pills or a bucket with e.g. paint.
Packaging designed in such a way that at the point of sale it constitutes an assembly of a certain number of sales units, whether sold as such to the final user or consumer, or whether it is used only to fill the shelves at the point of sale. The packaging can be removed from the item without changing the item's properties.
E.g. plastic or cardboard for assembling a number of beverages or display for setting up sales units in stores.
Transport packaging is packaging designed in such a way that the handling and transport of a number of sales units or multipack packaging is facilitated, so that damage caused by physical handling or transport can be avoided. Transport packaging does not include road, rail, sea and air freight containers.
For example, generic cardboard boxes, pallets and stretch film.
Packaging that has been designed, shaped, and put on the market with the intention of undergoing a number of trips or cycles during its lifetime by being refilled or reused for the same purpose for which it was designed (§ 3, paragraph 1, no. 17 in the statutory order on packaging, which is in Danish).
Reusable packaging is packaging that is returned and used multiple times for the same purpose, possibly through a deposit or return scheme. For example, reusable cups that are collected, washed, and used again, and beer or milk cartons that are returned and used multiple times. Producers of reusable packaging must facilitate the take-back of packaging waste when the reusable packaging is no longer reused and becomes packaging waste.
The Danish Environmental Protection Agency states the following:
The definition of reusable packaging is cumulative, which means that all three elements in the definition must be met before packaging can be considered reusable packaging. For example, if a EUR pallet has not been put on the market for reuse, it is not a reusable packaging. It also implies that there is an indirect requirement that the EUR pallet must be part of an active reuse system; otherwise, it cannot be guaranteed that the purpose was to market it with the intention of it going through a number of trips or cycles at a minimum.
DPA states the following:
In relation to reusable packaging, it is important to distinguish between "reusable packaging" as defined in the regulation and reuse of packaging. A packaging is not considered reusable packaging simply because it is reused as packaging. If it involves reuse of packaging, it is crucial whether a previous link has taken producer responsibility for the packaging. If company A from Denmark reuses cardboard boxes as packaging that they have received as packaging from company B from Denmark, which has reported the cardboard boxes as packaging in the producer responsibility register, the cardboard boxes do not need to be reported again.
It is also not considered "reusable packaging" simply because the packaging consists of recycled materials.
Primary production packaging is an article designed and intended to be used as packaging for unprocessed products of primary production.
Primary production is breeding or cultivation of primary products, including harvesting, milking and livestock production before slaughter. The term also includes hunting, fishing and harvesting wild products.
Packaging, designed and intended to be filled at the point of sale to the end-user.
For example, disposable cups made of cardboard or plastic that are refilled at a cafe (point of sale).
Service packaging also means beverage containers and cups for beverages that are single-use plastic products sold empty and that are not designed and intended to be filled at the point of sale.
For example, a collection of disposable plastic cups or plates which are sold empty in the retail trade.
That is, a store that e.g. sells a roll of single-use plastic cups to consumers for use at home.