FAQ - Waste management
In Denmark, we handle waste differently depending on whether it comes from households (private citizens) or commercial sources.
The municipalities are still responsible for collecting waste from households, while private actors handle waste from commercial sources.
Read more about waste treatment and the consequences for reporting here
No: Waste producing companies only have to pay for the handling of waste that is not packaging. The producer must pay for the part that is packaging.
A packaging is registered under producer responsibility by the company that first makes it available on the Danish market, with businesses as the end users. When the packaging becomes commercial waste, it is collected by a private waste collector, who is compensated by the collective organisation.
Read more about waste treatment under producer responsibility here
Packaging for general waste
The starting point is that all packaging is reported as general waste. It is solely in cases where a packaging is designed so that, according to the sorting guidelines, it should be sorted as residual or hazardous waste that it should not be reported in the category of general waste.
You can find the Danish Environmental Protection Agency's sorting guidelines here.
Most packaging will therefore be expected to be categorized as this type of waste distributed across the material categories:
- paper
- cardboard
- ferrous metals
- aluminum
- glass
- plastic
- food and beverage cartons
- wood
- porcelain
- cork
- ceramics
Packaging for residual waste
Waste that is not covered by other established collection or disposal schemes. This means waste that is not recyclable, not hazardous, or not covered by another scheme with producer responsibility. For example, pizza boxes.
The packaging must be designed so that it falls under this category. It does not matter what you expect the end user to do with the packaging.
Packaging for hazardous waste
Substances, materials, or products that are exhausted, such as chlorine-containing cleaning agents, paint, and spray cans, etc.
See the Danish Environmental Protection Agency's sorting guidelines here.
Hazardous waste must not contain products that could pose a danger in the collection and treatment, such as fireworks.
The packaging must be designed so that it falls under this category. It does not matter what you expect the end user to do with the packaging.
If you are in doubt, you can read the Danish Environmental Protection Agency's sorting guidelines here.
All companies in Denmark that generate waste and therefore need to dispose of it, for example by entering into an agreement with a private waste collector, are waste-producing companies.
A take-back scheme means that producers have the opportunity to organize the return of their packaging themselves and recycle or reuse it - either in their own production or with another private handler. This can for example be in the form of deposit schemes.
In a take-back scheme, the company handles the collection, sorting, and processing of its packaging waste itself. This differs from, for example, an offer where the company provides its customers with the option to return packaging upon delivery and then dispose of it in their own commercial waste.
The rules regarding individual take-back schemes are set by the statutory order on packaging.
Read more about relevant legislation.