Rules by market
Packaging waste obligations.
Most developed markets place the cost of dealing with packaging waste on whoever first places the packaged goods on the market. For an importer that is you, and the obligation is usually a registration, a report and a fee.
What the obligation usually looks like.
Register with a scheme or an authority in the market where the goods are sold.
Report the weight of packaging you placed on the market, broken down by material.
Pay a fee based on that weight, frequently modulated so that harder-to-recycle materials cost more.
Meet labelling or information requirements about recyclability in some markets.
Why importers get caught.
It is invisible until somebody asks. There is no border check for packaging registration, so the first contact is often an enforcement letter.
It applies per market rather than per region, so selling into several countries can mean several registrations.
It covers all three layers: the retail pack, the outer carton and the pallet wrap. Buyers who register only the retail pack under-report.
It is retrospective. Registering late usually means paying for what you already sold.
What to do about it.
Establish the requirement in every market you sell into, before you sell rather than after.
Ask the Indonesian supplier for packaging weights by material, per unit, as part of the specification. Getting this at the start is easy and reconstructing it later is not.
Design the packaging with the fee in mind, since modulated fees make material choice a cost decision as well as a protection one.
Keep the records, because the reporting is annual and it has to be evidenced.
Where it interacts with the rest.
Material restrictions in some markets limit what can be used at all, which is a design constraint rather than a fee.
Recyclability labelling requirements affect artwork, so they belong in the same conversation as the rest of the label.
None of this changes the protective job the packaging has to do on a six-week ocean voyage, which is the constraint that usually wins.
Questions buyers ask.
Does this apply to a small importer?
Thresholds exist in some markets and many are low. Check the position rather than assuming size exempts you, because registering late usually means paying for what you already sold.
Who reports the outer carton?
Whoever places the goods on the market, which includes the transport packaging. Under-reporting by counting only the retail pack is a common and easily corrected error.
Can my supplier give me the weights?
Yes, and they will rarely volunteer them. Ask for packaging weight by material per unit as part of the specification, at the start, when it costs nothing to obtain.
Read next.
Specifying the packaging
Left to the factory, packaging is chosen on cost. What to specify instead, and why.
Labelling for your market
Printed in Indonesia and judged in your country. What has to appear, and who carries the obligation.
What a European buyer has to build first
Six obligations that sit on the EU importer, and two dates inside the next eighteen months that change the tariff and the paperwork.
EU packaging obligations
Whoever first places packaging on an EU national market pays for its collection and recycling, and registers to do so. It is national, not one EU scheme.
Sourcing from Indonesia?
Tell us the product, the quantity and the destination. We come back with what it involves before anyone talks about money.