Do you have any questions concerning the Packaging Ordinance?
Whatever you wanted to know about the Packaging Ordinance in Austria and the registration of your commercially incurred packaging in the Interseroh Austria system, you may please find it in our FAQs.
1. What is Interseroh Austria?
The company INTERSEROH Austria GmbH, located in Vienna, is a collection and recycling system for commercial packaging (packaging that does not arise at the private final consumer) approved by the environment ministry. Interseroh Austria takes over the responsibilities of the companies affected by the Packaging Ordinance (circulators of packaging) and organises country-wide collection of the packaging and its recycling in accordance with the ordinance.
The organisation and execution of collection and recycling of the packaging are financed with the fees according to the respectively applicable list of tariffs and the marketing revenues realised from the packaging.
With its know-how Interseroh Austria has contributed significantly to improving the service and to a marked reduction in costs for the collection and recycling of packaging.
Interseroh Austria is a subsidiary of the German stock-market company INTERSEROH SE, which employs around 1,800 people in Germany and which, as a major European services company in the waste management sector, earns sales of around two billion euros per year.
2. What does Interseroh Austria do? What is the difference to ARA?
Interseroh Austria has a licence from the environment ministry to collect and recycle packaging that accumulates commercially in Austria.
All packaging that accumulates commercially (packaging that does not accumulate in the household) can therefore be dispensed from obligations through Interseroh Austria. This means manufacturers, importers, packers/fillers and distributors can transfer the work necessary to fulfil the Packaging Ordinance for their "commercial packaging" to Interseroh Austria. This includes not only transport packaging, which is to be seen almost without exception as "commercial packaging", but also sales and outer packaging that does not accumulate at private final consumers.
The company ARA works both in the commercial and private household sectors.
3. Why can Interseroh Austria offer lower fees than other systems?
With its know-how Interseroh has contributed significantly to improving the service and to a marked reduction in costs for the collection and recycling of packaging. There are two main reasons for this:
- Interseroh Austria is organised as a commercial enterprise. Lean structures and an efficient and target-orientated approach contribute to high cost-effectiveness.
- As a subsidiary of INTERSEROH SE, Interseroh Austria has access to international marketing channels for the secondary raw materials (paper, metals and plastics). Higher revenues can be earned for the individual packaging fractions through marketing in this way. Interseroh Austria passes these higher revenues on to its customers.
4. Which packaging materials can be dispensed from obligations through Interseroh Austria?
All packaging from the packaging materials
- paper, cardboard, board
- plastic
- metal
- wood and
- bonded materials
can be dispensed from obligations through Interseroh Austria.
Packaging from the packaging materials glass, ceramic and textile fibre as well as packaging on a biological basis play a subordinate role in commercial packaging and can currently not be dispensed from obligations through Interseroh Austria.
5. How does splitting into commercial and household packaging work (so-called licence-splitting)?
The Interseroh Austria partner must determine which share of his packaging accumulates commercially and which share in households. In this regard it is to be assumed that packaging in the packaging material groups
- transport packaging paper, cardboard, board
- plastic foils, tray foils and tightening straps
- hollow plastic bodies, plastic bags/net bags, plastic cartridges and mouldings
- EPS > 0.1 kg (e.g. polystyrene)
can usually be dispensed from obligations through Interseroh Austria as a whole as commercial packaging.
For the other packaging material groups (e.g. plastics small, ferrous metals small, sales packaging of paper, etc.), the share of packaging that does not accumulate at private final consumers is to be determined on the basis of sales figures and customer structure.
Packaging can only be dispensed from obligations through Interseroh Austria as a whole if it also accumulates in the commercial sector as a whole. No volumes then need to be entered in the volume reports to the system used so far (zero report).
The customer consultants of Interseroh Austria will gladly support companies in classifying their packaging.
6. How does splitting into commercial and household packaging work in detail?
Regarding assignment of packaging to the commercial or household sector, a practical procedure has been developed together with the environment ministry (letter dated 29.07.2002):
- estimation of the share of packaging in percent that accumulates at commercial final consumers;
- the volumes must be estimated on the basis of plausible and verifiable data (e.g. sales data and customer structure);
- the data and documents on which the estimation is based must be kept available for inspection (e.g. by the ministry);
- if the commercial final-consumer volumes cannot be determined with sufficient accuracy, unfair competition to the detriment of the household system is to be avoided by an individual safety mark-up (e.g. +5% for the household volumes).
Licence-splitting has been practised successfully by many customers of Interseroh Austria for many years. Our references are: Knauf, Rigips, Berglandmilch, Villas Austria, Akzo Nobel, Sefra, Kärntnermilch, Dan Küchen and many others.
The customer consultants of Interseroh Austria will gladly support companies in classifying their packaging.
7. Does dispensation of the packaging in several systems lead to higher costs?
The determination of the proportion of household and commercial packaging usually does not cause many costs (see 5 and 6). The volume reports can then be sent at the same times as in the past.
With dispensation of commercial packaging through Interseroh Austria, however, the partner profits from the savings potential through lower fees for dispensation of the packaging and the partner's customers from free collection of the waste packaging.
8. When is it possible to change systems?
It is possible to change systems at practically any time and such a change does not necessarily depend on notice periods. We have a written statement available to us in this regard from the environment ministry.
Interseroh Austria partners usually change systems the next time their volume report is due (during the year). The volume report to the system used so far is in turn to be reduced accordingly or, if the partner only places commercial packaging on the market, no volumes need to be entered in the volume report to the system used so far (zero report).
9. Does the system used so far need to be notified of the change in system?
Notification of this is not necessary. It is also not necessary to terminate the current contract, which is also not appropriate in most cases because a proportion of packaging that does not accumulate commercially usually remains. This proportion must then remain in the household system.
A change in system for commercial packaging is usually effected in the course of the year and without termination of the ARA contract.
10. Do I need to inform my own customers of a change in system?
According to the Packaging Ordinance (§ 3, par. 5a), companies that place packaging on to the market are obligated to inform the next distribution level or commercial final consumer of participation in a system in a suitable way. In this regard the Packaging Ordinance names a reference in order or delivery papers or on the Internet including naming of the respective collection and recycling system.
The amendment to the Packaging Ordinance of 2006 makes clear that a legally binding statement must be made pursuant to § 4, par. 2 at least once a year. This means every company that obtains packaging that has already been dispensed from obligations from a supplier must have this confirmed by the supplier annually.
Regarding a suitable reference for use on the Internet or on order or delivery papers, Interseroh Austria will gladly make a text recommendation available on request.
11. Does the Interseroh Austria partner need to mark the packaging?
According to the Packaging Ordinance (§ 3, par. 5a), companies that place packaging on to the market are obligated to inform the next distribution level or commercial final consumer of participation in a system in a suitable way. This, however, does not necessarily need to be done by way of marking of the packaging or a note on the packaging, but can, for example, also be done via the Internet or on the delivery note.
Regarding a suitable reference for use on the Internet or on order or delivery papers, Interseroh Austria will gladly make a text recommendation available on request.
12. The "Grüne Punkt" on licensed Interseroh Austria packaging – a problem?
The European Commission has made clear decisions regarding the marking of packaging with the "Grüne Punkt" (decision of 18 September 2001 and notice according to article 19, paragraph 3 of Council Regulation 17 of 19.10.2002, decision of the Commission of 16.20.2003).
The essence of these decisions is: the Green Dot may also be affixed to packaging of competing systems (e.g. Interseroh Austria) without rights being derived from this. The Green Dot can therefore remain on the packaging without legal consequences for an Interseroh Austria partner.
13. The attestation causes costs (in time and money). Is it absolutely necessary?
The Packaging Ordinance stipulates that collection and recycling systems must ensure control of revenue collection through reasonable cooperation. This control can be effected at little cost through attestation. Attestation ensures that the complete packaging for which the Interseroh Austria partner is responsible according to the Packaging Ordinance has been dispensed from obligations correctly and therefore also improves legal certainty for the Interseroh Austria partner. The data on packaging volumes needed for the attestation are usually available in the annual financial statements of the respective company.
Procedure: It must be checked at the end of the year whether all packaging circulated in Austria has been dispensed from obligations correctly. If discrepancies arise, it is possible with the attestation to correct the total in the previous volume reports. Interseroh Austria provides the partner with a form to this end. The packaging volumes that are to be confirmed (attested) by an auditor are to be entered in this form. This procedure must be followed by partners with a contractual volume of more than EUR 20,000.00.
For contractual partners with a contractual volume of less than EUR 20,000.00, a legally binding declaration suffices. In this case the volume report must be signed by the management with legally binding effect and sent to Interseroh Austria.
14. How high are the costs for the attestation?
An attestation is only necessary from contractual partners with a contractual volume of more than EUR 20,000,-. If this attestation is prepared by an auditor in the course of auditing of the accounts, the work and costs are very low or contained in the all-inclusive costs for the audit so that no additional costs arise.
Should auditors demand additional high costs for attestation, Interseroh Austria offers to find auditors whose costs for an attestation are usually much lower than EUR 1,000,-.
No additional costs arise for a company for a legally binding declaration.
15. What changes take place as a result of a partner contract with Interseroh Austria?
The partner contract with Interseroh Austria results in only minor organisational changes:
- determination of the commercial share of your packaging (licence-splitting)
- reporting of the commercial volumes to Interseroh Austria
- information to your customers (e.g. on delivery note or invoice or Interseroh Austria can take over this task)
- the volumes less the commercial share must from then on be reported to the system used so far.
There are no changes in:
- legal certainty (Interseroh Austria offers legally valid dispensation for commercial packaging)
- determination of volume (volume ascertainment as before)
- invoicing (the time for payment of the dispensation fees is comparable to your previous time).
16. Can Interseroh Austria and ARA packaging be disposed of together?
The law explicitly allows joint disposal of packaging licensed in different collection systems. No separate collection containers per collection system are necessary in this case.
The collection point must, however, ensure that the qualities of the waste are the same (e.g. sheets) and on the basis of suitable documents (e.g. turnover figures etc.) make a verifiable breakdown from which it can be seen which shares of the corresponding packaging are dispensed from obligations in the different systems.
In the case of co-use of a collection and recycling system the operator of a system that is co-used may claim the resultant costs from the respective other system. The collection point is not affected by these costs.
17. Is the Interseroh Austria partner liable if his customers do not dispose of Interseroh Austria packaging through the Interseroh Austria collection system?
According to the Packaging Ordinance, the circulator of packaging must inform his customers about participation in a collection and recycling system (regardless of which system is concerned). This means the Interseroh Austria partner has the obligation to inform his customers that he has his packaging or a part of his packaging dispensed from obligations through Interseroh Austria (see also 10).
Interseroh Austria will gladly also inform the customers of the Interseroh Austria partner separately so that the collection points are informed of the free collection of Interseroh Austria packaging.
The disposal practice of the collection points can, however, only be influenced by the Interseroh Austria partner to a limited extent (the collection point is the owner of the packaging and can dispose of it at will).
If a collection point does not make use of collection of the packaging by Interseroh Austria, the Interseroh Austria partner cannot be held responsible for this.
18. How is the packaging collected by Interseroh Austria?
Interseroh Austria is conceived as a collection system. The collection point informs its waste management company of the need for collection. It fetches the Interseroh Austria packaging free of charge (minimum volume 2 m³). Free collection is also offered to collection points with lower packaging volumes if regional or local collection places are not available within a reasonable distance. Interseroh Austria organises the collection of the packaging with more than 120 waste management companies throughout Austria.
Most collection points collect packaging from various collection and recycling systems. In this case the collection point does not need to keep the packaging separate, but merely to assign the proportions of the volumes arithmetically to the different collection systems. The waste management companies then make the proportionate quantities available to the different systems.
19. How is the packaging assigned to the respective systems by the waste management company?
The collection point informs the waste management company of the breakdown in the "System Breakdown". The waste management company then assigns the packaging to the respective systems according to this information and settles with them.
If the collection point does not provide information on the breakdown, the co-used collection system has the possibility to settle the co-collected volumes with the other system.
It is ensured that the Interseroh Austria packaging can be collected and recycled. Interseroh Austria sends the environment ministry the corresponding verification for every calendar year.
20. What waste management companies does Interseroh Austria cooperate with?
Interseroh Austria cooperates with around 120 waste management companies throughout Austria. These companies are usually the same companies that also work for other comparable systems. This disposal, therefore, usually also does not lead to any change in collection practice for the collection points.
Thanks to the high density of waste management companies, it is ensured that Interseroh Austria packaging can be collected decentrally and cost-efficiently in the whole of Austria.
