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Centralizing package data for compliance

Given today’s budget constraints, centralizing packaging data to ensure compliance with the world’s patchwork of packaging fees may seem foreign.

At Foresite House (right) are Graham Margetson (left), and Lance Allison.
At Foresite House (right) are Graham Margetson (left), and Lance Allison.

Today, 28 countries have “producer responsibility” laws that require manufacturers and importers to pay fees to collection organizations for each package sold. In Western Europe, each country has implemented regulations to comply with the 1994 Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste, and Eastern Europe is closing fast on developing regulations and taxes.

As early as this fall, companies will have to weigh their sales packaging (the packaging that reaches the consumer) going into the Canadian provinces of Ontario and soon Quebec to comply with new “take-back” laws. This will be the first time this kind of package data will have to be gathered in the North American market. (For more on Canada’s initiative, see p. 113.)

To comply with this crossword puzzle of mandates, manufacturers have spent billions of dollars on fees and on complex calculations, as the systems vary from country to country. The process of collecting the information on packaging has been a real trial because most manufacturers have no central repository of data on packaging weights. So, for many companies, the process of determining the fees is passed down to distributors or to overseas subsidiaries, especially if the final packaging is completed in that country. However, when it comes time to make package design improvements, designers must look at each package discretely.

Software can help

Although it may seem easier to outsource the calculations to other companies or subsidiaries in the overseas countries where the fees are collected, it’s not always the most efficient. “Each country requires different forms in different languages, submitted at differing intervals,” says Graham Margetson, director of Foresite Systems Ltd., the designer of Pack.NET (called Packtrak elsewhere in the world) software for packaging-fee calculations.

The calculations become increasingly complex when a company has 10ꯠ different packages being sold in 20 different countries. Imagine the prospect of gathering data on every single SKU package and each component, weighing each, and determining how many units are sold in each country. Further, two countries also require source-reduction reports. And manufacturers are required to comply with the European Union’s “Essential Requirements” paperwork on each unit, at point of design.

Today, many Fortune 500 companies have discovered that centralizing their packaging data and automating the packaging fee reports permits the companies to take better control of their costs. Some are actually saving money, not just on packaging fees, but also in reduced material costs as well.

Centralizing data

More than 200 mostly European companies use Pack.NET software from Foresite. The list includes well-known giants such as Microsoft, Eastman Kodak, H.J. Heinz, Mattel and Pharmacia, as well as Levi Strauss, Coca-Cola Europe, Compaq in Scotland, GE Lighting Europe, and PPG Industries.

Originally, Foresite began by designing software for British retailers that have had an extra burden under that nation’s 1997 packaging waste law. England is the only country that places a financial “take-back” responsibility on the entire packaging chain, from raw material producers to retailers. In its process, Foresite gathered data on packaging materials and weight from suppliers to help retailers calculate their fees (see sidebar, p. 126).

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