The packaging regulations

The European Parliament and Council Directive 94/62/EC on Packaging and Packaging Waste first came into force at the end of 1994.

It is aimed to harmonise the management of packaging waste in the EU, reducing any harmful effects on the environment. Primary objectives are to increase the amount of recovery and recycling of packaging waste but also to reduce the amount of packaging used in the first place.

In the UK, the directive is implemented by the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2008 and by the Packaging (Essential Requirements) Regulations 2003.

The idea of the packaging regulations in the UK is to incentivise all obligated companies throughout the packaging supply chain to do the following:

Minimise the amount of packaging they put onto the market
Re-design the packaging so that is less harmful on the environment
Encourage the amount of packaging potentially being recovered, reused and recycled so that the packaging flow ultimately becomes more sustainable