. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/TBT/N/NLD/44
24 May 2002
(02-2866)
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:  English
NOTIFICATION
The following notification is being circulated in accordance with Article 10.6.
1. Member to Agreement notifying:   THE NETHERLANDS
If applicable, name of local government involved (Articles 3.2 and 7.2):           
2. Agency responsible:   Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, e-mail and web-site
addresses, if available) of  agency or authority designated to handle comments
regarding the notification shall be indicated if different from above:           
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [ X], 2.10.1 [    ], 5.6.2 [    ], 5.7.1 [    ], other:           
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading.
ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable):   Packaging, as referred to
in Article 3(1) of Directive 94/62/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of
20 December 1994 on packaging and packaging waste (OJ L 365) (hereinafter:  Packaging
Directive), as well as paper and cardboard.
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:   Decree containing
rules on packaging, packaging waste, paper and cardboard (Decree on the management of
packaging, paper and cardboard)
6. Description of content:   The Decree enters into force, either entirely or partly, on 1 January
2004 if industry has not managed to reduce the volume of cans and bottles in litter by twothirds by that date, compared to the quantity in September 2001.  This draft Decree then
replaces, if necessary, the Regulation on packaging and packaging waste and a Packaging
Covenant.
This draft Decree forces the producer or importer of packaging and of paper and cardboard,
to collect packaging or paper and cardboard they have made available to third parties in theNetherlands separately or separate it (from household waste) following collection, and to
take care of the subsequent waste management thereof.  Of the total quantity of packaging
made available to third parties, 75 per cent by weight must be recovered and 70 per cent by
weight must be recycled. With regard to paper and cardboard, excluding packaging,
75 per cent by weight must be recycled. As for packaging materials made of glass,
paper/cardboard, metal, plastic and wood, separate objectives have been stipulated for
recycling, namely 90 per cent by weight for glass, 75 for paper/cardboard, 85 for metal,27 for plastic and 15 for wood.
These obligations correspond to the regulations included in EU Directive 94/62/EC.
Moreover, Directive 94/62/EC does not  provide for paper and cardboard.
Finally, anyone who, in carrying out their profession or running their company, makes
drinks available to the consumer in packaging, is required to levy deposit money on suchdrinks packaging.  Moreover, plastic drinks packaging with a capacity of more than half a
litre and glass drinks packaging must be refillable.G/TBT/N/NLD/44
Page 2
This draft Decree contains the following technical regulations.
(a) Regulation with regard to the levy of deposit money (Articles 13 to 16);
(b) Labelling regulations for returnable drinks packaging (Article 17);(c) Regulations with regard to a multip le-use requirement for drinks packaging 
(Articles 18 and 19)
7. Objective and rationale, including the na ture of urgent problems where applicable:
The aim of the deposit money duty is to promote re-use and to prevent litter.  A deposit
money system guarantees the collection of drinks packaging since virtually all types ofpackaging are returned, so that this packaging can be used several times (re-use) or if this is
not possible, can be recycled or can be recovered in another way. Particularly with regard to
cans and small bottles, the percentage of recycling will increase since this packaging is not
collected separately at the moment.  In addition, by introducing deposit money for this
drinks packaging, the problem of litter is addressed.
In order to avoid trade barriers, a number of provisions have been made.  For example, the
deposit money duty only applies to the last link in the chain which makes the drinks
packaging directly available to the consumer, and not to the entire chain.  A number of
categories of drinks which are expected to be imported frequently, such as wine and spirits,
are exempt from the deposit money duty.  Also  from an environmental point of view, there
is no objection to excluding these categories, given the considerable distances which many
of these drinks would travel if a multiple-use requirement were to apply, which would leadto additional environmental pollution.  The environmental benefit of a multiple system
would then be called into question.  A deposit money system promoting re-use is therefore
unnecessary for that reason.  In addition, a deposit money system promoting  recycling is
unnecessary for this category of drinks, because an effective collection system by means of
glass containers has been in operation for years.
Finally, exemption may be granted from the deposit money duty and from the multiple-use
requirement for environmental reasons.  In this way, a level playing field is created: on the
one hand, all product packaging combinations permitted in the Netherlands can also be
imported freely, on the other hand, a situati on is avoided where Dutch companies would
suffer a competitive disadvantage by having to meet deposit money and multiple-use duties,
while foreign companies which introduce products onto the Dutch market would be exempt
from these.
The labelling requirements pursuant to Article 17 apply to both Dutch products sold within
the internal market and to imported products.  This is a case of a level playing field in the
sense that internationally operating companies, both Dutch and non-Dutch companies, must
indicate on one label that the product is subject to the deposit money duty in the
Netherlands, while other specific conditions probably apply in other countries.
A provision of mutual recognition has not been included. It is desirable that in order to
reduce litter and promote material re-use, deposit money is levied on all drinks packaging as
referred to in the draft Decree. Moreover, re-use is promoted by the multiple-userequirement for plastic drinks packaging more than half a litre and glass drinks packaging.
8. Relevant documents:
*Ministerial decision on packaging and packaging waste
*Packaging Covenant II
*Articles 10.15 to 10.18 and 15.32 of the Environmental Management Act
9. Proposed date of adoption:  1 December 2003
Proposed date of entry into force:  1 January 2004
10. Final date for comments:   1 August 2002
11. Texts available from:  National enquiry point [ X] or address, telephone and fax
numbers, e-mail and web-site addresses, if available of the other body: