30,000 new companies to be included in producer responsibility for packaging – Rinki makes joining a producer organisation easy

All companies that operate in Finland will have to pay for recycling the packaging of products that they put on the market. The change will bring an estimated 30,000 new companies under the producer responsibility obligation, and Rinki has created an online system to make joining the producer organisation easy.

By Helmi Partanen

When the turnover threshold of EUR 1 million for producer responsibility for packaging is removed at the start of the new year, an estimated 30,000 new Finnish companies will come under the producer responsibility obligation.

“Recycling packaging is part of circular economy. However, packaging will not circulate if even one of the links in the chain is missing. It used to be just the larger companies that bore the responsibility for recycling. The change means that large companies will no longer need to finance the collection and recycling of packaging by themselves,” says Rinki Ltd’s CEO Juha-Heikki Tanskanen.

Removing the turnover limit will harmonise the practices related to producer responsibility obligations in Finland. The change was initiated by the EU and aims to treat companies equally without imposing an excessive administrative burden on small businesses.

New online service makes it easier to join a producer organisation

Rinki launched a new online service for companies on its website in November, which enables Finnish businesses to join the producer community of their choice quickly and easily. The service automatically tries to fill in as much of the information required for the conclusion of an individual contract, using different registers, in order to minimise the need to manually input company details. The contract is signed electronically.

“The entire process will only take a couple of minutes at best. We have received positive feedback on the new system and customers have praised how easy it is to use,” says Ville Paloniemi, Rinki’s Systems Manager, who is responsible for the new joining method.

“We are, therefore, planning to expand the system to cover joint contracts in the future, not forgetting producers based outside of Finland or their contract requirements,” Paloniemi continues.

 

Does ypur company package or import packaged products for the Finnish market? Join a producer organisation!