Citation and commencement

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Packaging (Essential Requirements) (Amendment) Regulations 2013 and come into force on 30th September 2013.

Amendments to the Packaging (Essential Requirements) Regulations 2003

2.—(1) The Packaging (Essential Requirements) Regulations 2003(3) are amended as follows.

(2) In Regulation 2(2), for the definition of “packaging”, substitute —

““packaging” means all products made of any materials of any nature to be used for the containment, protection, handling, delivery and presentation of goods, from raw materials to processed goods, from the producer to the user or the consumer, including non-returnable items used for the same purposes, but only where the products are—

provided that–

Schedule V lists the illustrative examples of packaging stated in the Annex of Commission Directive 2013/2/EU(4) amending Annex 1 of the Directive;”.

(3) For Schedule V, substitute —

Regulation 2(2)

“SCHEDULE VILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES OF PACKAGING REFERRED TO IN THE PROVISO TO THE DEFINITION OF PACKAGING IN REGULATION 2(2)

Illustrative examples for criterion (i)—

• Packaging

  • Sweet boxes

  • Film overwrap around a CD case

  • Mailing pouches for catalogues and magazines (with a magazine inside)

  • Cake doilies sold with a cake

  • Rolls, tubes and cylinders around which flexible material (e.g. plastic film, aluminium, paper) is wound, except rolls, tubes and cylinders intended as parts of production machinery and not used to present a product as a sales unit

  • Flower pots intended to be used only for the selling and transporting of plants and not intended to stay with the plant throughout its life time

  • Glass bottles for injection solutions

  • CD spindles (sold with CDs, not intended to be used as storage)

  • Clothes hangers (sold with a clothing item)

  • Matchboxes

  • Sterile barrier systems (pouches, trays and materials necessary to preserve the sterility of the product)

  • Beverage system capsules (e.g. coffee, cacao, milk) which are left empty after use

  • Refillable steel cylinders used for various kinds of gas, excluding fire extinguishers

• Non-packaging

  • Flower pots intended to stay with the plant throughout its life time

  • Tool boxes

  • Tea bags

  • Wax layers around cheese

  • Sausage skins

  • Clothes hangers (sold separately)

  • Beverage system coffee capsules, coffee foil pouches, and filter paper coffee pods disposed together with the used coffee product

  • Cartridges for printers

  • CD, DVD and video cases (sold together with a CD, DVD or video inside)

  • CD spindles (sold empty, intended to be used as storage)

  • Soluble bags for detergents

  • Grave side lights (containers for candles)

  • Mechanical quern (integrated in a refillable recipient, e.g. refillable pepper mill)

Illustrative examples for criterion (ii)—

• Packaging, if designed and intended to be filled at the point of sale

  • Paper or plastic carrier bags

  • Disposable plates and cups

  • Cling film

  • Sandwich bags

  • Aluminium foil

  • Plastic foil for cleaned clothes in laundries

• Non-packaging

  • Stirrer

  • Disposable cutlery

  • Wrapping paper (sold separately)

  • Paper baking cases (sold empty)

  • Cake doilies sold without a cake

Illustrative examples for criterion (iii)—

• Packaging

  • Labels hung directly on or attached to a product

• Part of packaging

  • Mascara brush which forms part of the container closure

  • Sticky labels attached to another packaging item

  • Staples

  • Plastic sleeves

  • Device for measuring dosage which forms part of the container closure for detergents

  • Mechanical quern (integrated in a non-refillable recipient, filled with a product, e.g. pepper mill filled with pepper)

  • Non-packaging

  • Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags.”.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Packaging (Essential Requirements) Regulations 2003 (S.I. 2003/1941) (the “2003 Regulations”). The 2003 Regulations implement Articles 9 and 11 of Directive 94/62/EC of the European Parliament and the Council on packaging and packaging waste (OJ L 365, 31.12.1994, p.10) (the “1994 Directive”) which relate to the essential requirements to be satisfied by packaging.

These Regulations implement Article 1 and the Annex of Commission Directive 2013/2/EU (OJ L 37, 8.2.2013, p.10) (the “2013 Directive”), which amends Annex I of the 1994 Directive.

These Regulations amend the definition of “packaging”, which contains a reference to Schedule V to the 2003 Regulations and substitute Schedule V. Schedule V set outs the revised list of illustrative examples of packaging stated in the Annex of the 2013 Directive.

A full impact assessment has not been produced for these Regulations as no significant impact on the private, voluntary or public sectors is foreseen. As these Regulations transpose a Commission Directive, a transposition note setting out how the Government will transpose into UK law those elements of that Directive has been prepared. Copies of the transposition note have been placed in the libraries of both Houses of Parliament and are also annexed to the Explanatory Memorandum which is available alongside the instrument on the www.legislation.gov.uk website.