---
id: KB-NO-002
url: https://app.codecontract.io/help/regulation/packaging-and-plastics-what-you-must-prove
idioma: en
categoria: normativa
subcategoria: residuos
audiencia: usuario
nivel: intermedio
actualizado: 2026-08-13
tambienEn: [es]
relacionados: [KB-NO-001, KB-NO-003]
citadoPor: [KB-NO-001, KB-NO-003, KB-CS-018, KB-CS-026, KB-AL-002, KB-NO-005, KB-NO-009, KB-CS-030, KB-NO-012, KB-IU-012]
---

# Packaging and plastics: what you must be able to prove

_Composition, recyclability and declarations: data that comes from third parties._

**Responde a:** packaging regulation what documentation · packaging placed on the market declaration · single-use plastics obligations · packaging recyclability certificate

Packaging and single-use plastics rules have made mandatory something that used to be commercial: knowing exactly what every package you place on the market is made of, and being able to prove it with paperwork that is not yours.

## Where each item comes from

| Data | Who holds it | How to get it |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Material composition | Your packaging supplier | By asking, and renewing when it changes |
| Recycled content percentage | The supplier, with substantiation | Certificate or declaration, dated |
| Weight per packaging unit | You or the supplier | Technical data sheet |
| Recyclability | The supplier or a test | A document you must keep |

> [!IMPORTANT]
> The duty to declare usually falls on whoever places the product on the market, even though the supplier holds the data. That means a supplier who does not send the data sheet is not just a purchasing problem: it is your regulatory problem. Confirm with your adviser exactly what you must declare.

## Frameworks cited in this area

The European packaging and packaging waste regulation, the single-use plastics directive, extended producer responsibility and collective compliance schemes, plus national waste rules. Timelines and thresholds are being staged and differ by material and by country.

> [!WARNING]
> Composition data changes when a supplier changes material, and they do not always tell you. Marking those data sheets with an annual expiry is what stops you declaring in 2027 with 2025 data that is no longer true.

> [!NOTE]
> With dozens of packaging references, this is an annual review per supplier, not a project. What turns it into a project is not having started.

**Is a supplier declaration enough or is testing needed?**

It depends on the data and the material; check before assuming a declaration suffices.

**What about packaging from outside the EU?**

Usually where the data is hardest to get, and where it pays to start asking earliest.

**How do I prove I asked in time?**

The case shows it with send and delivery dates.

## Ejemplos

**A packer has 60 packaging references and does not know the recycled content of half of them.**

- Launches a request to its 14 packaging suppliers
- Marks the data sheets with an annual expiry

→ Gathers the data in three weeks, and from then on it renews itself yearly.

**The composition data sits with the packaging manufacturer.**

- Requests it and stores it with the reference

→ The data lives where it will be looked for.

**The supplier changes material and gives no notice.**

- Asks them to communicate any change of composition

→ The change arrives before the client's question.

**Recyclability is claimed with nothing behind it.**

- Keeps the manufacturer's declaration that backs it

→ Every claim has its paper.

**A client asks for the data on three different references.**

- Checks each reference's file

→ You answer without phoning the supplier.

**The packaging documentation expires and nobody notices.**

- Records the validity on receipt

→ The warning arrives before the client does.