A package is any item that is manufactured with any kind of material that is used to contain, protect, handle, distribute and present merchandise, from raw materials to finished products, at any phase of the manufacturing, distribution or consumption chain.
Packages are considered to be items that meet the previous definition, without detriment to other uses that the package may perform, except when the item is an integral part of the product and is necessary to contain, hold or preserve said product over its shelf life, and all its features are meant to be used, consumed or eliminated as a whole. The concept of package includes:
The bags that are delivered or acquired in businesses for the transport of merchandise by the consumer or end user.
The items that are designed and meant to be filled at the point of sale and the disposable items sold filled, or designed and meant to be filled at the point of sale in order to be used as a package (such as trays, plates, cups or any other disposable item).
Explanatory examples of the definition of a package according to the regulations
Types of packaging
What packaging must be declared?
The packaging Law stipulates that companies are responsible for those packaged products which may be acquired for consumption by private individuals. In the case of commercial and industrial packaging, companies may shift responsibility for waste to the final possessor of this packaging.
Therefore, depending on the type of packaging, companies will have to include certain packaging in their declaration and make mandatory contributions for it, while, in other cases, the contribution does not apply or is voluntary, although information on this packaging may be included in the packaging declaration, for merely informative purposes.
The following must be declared and a monetary contribution made to the SIG ('SIG Formats'):
By contrast, there exist types of packaging for which the company shall not have to contribute to the SIG:
Commercial and/or industrial packaging, when responsibility for waste management is shifted to the final possessor thereof, (instead of voluntarily incorporating the packaging into the SIG). Reusable packaging: Reuse means all operations in which the packaging conceived and designed to pass through a minimum number of circuits, rotations or uses over the course of its life cycle, is refilled or reused in order to achieve the same objective as the one it was designed to achieve, with or without auxiliary products present in the market which would permit the refilling of the packaging itself. This packaging is considered packaging waste when it is no longer used.
Packaging placed on the market by means of the deposit and return system.
Even so, participating companies may provide information on these packaging units (“NON-SIG Formats”) by means of the Declaration, without this meaning that they have to make amonetary contribution if they wantEcoembes to help them comply with the legal requirement of informing the Autonomous Community with regard to all of the packaging material; or if they participate in the Ecoembes Company Prevention Plan (PEP).