FAQ - Packaging Types - Materials and Design
All packaging is covered by producer responsibility - however, packaging covered by the deposit and return system is exempt.
Packaging:
All items of any kind and material used for packing, protecting, handling, delivering from the producer to the user or consumer, and presenting goods, whether they are raw materials or processed goods.
All single-use items used for the same purposes, as well as beverage containers and cups for beverages that are single-use plastic products, should similarly be regarded as packaging.
Relevant types of packaging:
- sales packaging (primary packaging)
- grouped packaging (secondary packaging)
- transport packaging (tertiary packaging)
- service packaging
- reusable packaging
- primary production packaging.
There are many different types of materials used for packaging. The specific type of material is often chosen based on the properties needed for the individual product it protects. The type of material can affect how optimally the packaging can be reused.
Find information about the most common packaging materials here:
Worth knowing about the most common packaging materials and types
The national recommendations and the authorities' guidelines for the design requirements for eco-modulation.
Read more in the Danish Environmental Protection Agency's guidance here
For your work with your packaging, you can find tips & tricks and various guidelines below:
Environmentally friendly packaging is packaging that, for example:
- is material-minimised
- is made from a single material (if possible)
- is easy to sort at source – possibly disassemble
- can effectively be integrated into the recycling process
- retains high value as a secondary raw material
- is reusable packaging
Get more advice, and find inspiration for environmentally friendly design
A packaging that is not reusable packaging.
See more regarding definitions of packaging here:
Prepare for producer responsibility with good packaging design
Packaging that has been conceived, designed, and marketed 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.
DPA states:
If your product clearly falls under the definition of reusable packaging, this packaging will only be covered when producer responsibility takes effect in 2025. The second part of the regulation will describe how quantities of reusable packaging that are added to and taken back from the market should be accounted for.
In relation to reusable packaging, it is important to distinguish between "reusable packaging" as defined in the regulation and the reuse of packaging. A packaging is not considered reusable packaging simply because it is reused as packaging. If we are talking about the reuse of packaging, it is crucial whether a previous party has taken producer responsibility for the packaging. For instance, if company A from Denmark reuses cardboard boxes as packaging, which it has received as packaging from company B from Denmark, which has reported the cardboard boxes as packaging in the producer register, the cardboard boxes do not need to be reported again.
It is also not considered "reusable packaging" simply because a packaging consists of recycled materials.
The reuse of packaging is supported in the upcoming system by the fact that producers who use reusable packaging only have to pay once for the circulation of the packaging in the market. If a reusable packaging, for example, can be circulated 30 times before it is discarded, a fee is only paid once instead of the 30 times that would have been paid if using one-way packaging.
There is a desire in the political agreement on producer responsibility to ensure flexible frameworks for producers with new packaging solutions, for example in the form of reuse and return systems. Read more here.
Read more about the registration and reporting obligation for reusable packaging