Producer responsibility organisations (PRO's)
A producer responsibility organisation (PRO), such as VANA, ensures collective fulfilment of the obligations of the extended producer responsibility on behalf of the companies that are members, so that the individual company does not have to collect and treat waste itself.
A PRO is the most obvious way to handle your producer responsibility. The PRO handles the obligations for collection, sorting, waste treatment, statutory reporting to the authorities and payments to municipalities, private waste collectors, etc. The individual producer reamains responsible for reporting the correct data and paying to the PROs as well as conducting self-monitoring.
Requirement to enrol in a PRO for disposable packaging
In the draft Packaging Order (phase 2), it is a requirement for companies that have producer responsibility for disposable packaging to be enrolled in a PRO.
Companies covered by producer responsibility for disposable packaging must be enrolled in a PRO at the latest upon registration in the register of authorities (DPA).
Companies that are already registered in DPA without having choosen a PRO must be enrolled in a PRO by 14 January 2025.
For reusable packaging, it is voluntary whether the company is enrolled in a PRO.
If a PRO is cancelled, the producer must sign up for a new PRO within 14 days.
Source: Draft Packaging Order (phase 2) §77 - find it here.
The Executive Order will enter into force on 31 December 2024.
Members of VANA benefit from significant economies of scale – for the benefit of both the environment and the companies' bottom line. We cover all packaging fractions, are nationwide and work not-for-profit. As a collective scheme, VANA solves the following tasks for our members from the time the producer responsibility comes into force:
- VANA ensures that you live up to your obligations for, among other things, collection, sorting and waste treatment of the packaging you put on the market.
- VANA documents the actual recycling.
- VANA ensures that your data is reported to Dansk Producentansvar and the Danish Environmental Protection Agency
- VANA handles agreements, dialogue and compensation with municipalities and private waste collectors.
- VANA ensures a cost-effective fee structure that rewards the most sustainable packaging (the fee structure is set by the authorities).
Read more about the benefits of being a member of VANA here.
In addition, VANA sees it as our task to make it as simple and straightforward as possible for our members to comply with the producer responsibility, for example by developing a simple and straightforward reporting system so that you only have to deal with data reporting in one place.
This means that the more members we have in VANA and the more packaging we handle, the better prices we can negotiate with suppliers to make it as cost-effective and simple as possible when you take responsibility for the packaging you put on the market throughout its life cycle.