Understand extended producer responsibility in Denmark

If you place products on the Danish market, you are responsible for making sure they are handled and disposed of correctly when they become waste.

Understand the rules, and find the product areas that apply to you.

Packaging, a wine bottle, a battery, a phone, a takeaway cup, a fishing float and a plastic crate, seen from above

The eight product areas in Denmark

A battery follows different rules from a polystyrene box. That is why producer responsibility is split into several product areas, which you can explore one by one.

Packaging

Applies to all products whose packaging ends up as waste in Denmark.

Reusable packaging

Packaging designed to be used many times.

Single-use plastic

Products from eight specific single-use plastic categories.

Batteries

All types of chemical energy sources, from portable to industrial.

Electronics

Electrical and electronic equipment, EEE and WEEE.

Vehicles

End-of-life vehicles in two specific categories.

Fishing gear

Fishing gear containing plastic.

Coming soon

Textiles

Clothing, footwear and home textiles. Decided in the EU, following once the legislation takes effect in Denmark.

When do you have producer responsibility?

Most people think of a factory, but a producer is whoever first makes a product available on the market in Denmark, however they do it.

Factory in DenmarkYou manufacture goods here and sell them on the market.

Import from abroadYou buy goods abroad and bring them into Denmark.

Online shop and distance sellingYou sell online to Danish consumers, including from abroad.

DropshippingYou sell the goods and the supplier ships them directly from abroad.

Own brandYou have the goods made by someone else and sell them under your own name.

Who is the producer? Making available on the market means bringing a product to market for the first time. Whoever does that is the producer and carries the responsibility for making sure the product is handled correctly as waste. This applies whether you sell the product or give it away for free.

How you meet producer responsibility

Once you have producer responsibility, there are three fixed obligations every year. Here you can see what you handle and what we take care of for you.

You

Emballage Indberetning

1Registration

You provide the detailsWe register you in the Danish producer register

2Reporting

You send your volumesWe validate and report to DPA

3Environmental contribution

You payWe calculate and settle with the authorities

One product can trigger several producer responsibilities

A cordless drill, for example, is packaging, batteries and electronics all at once. We work out which producer responsibilities apply to your products, so you report correctly on all of them.

Get your products assessed

A cordless drill, where the tool itself, the battery and the packaging each trigger their own producer responsibility

Packaging the box and the plastic Batteries the built-in battery Electronics the tool itself

The players in Danish producer responsibility

Three bodies, each with its own role. Follow the path from the rules all the way down to you, or see who does what.

The Danish Energy Agency

A state authority. It administers and enforces the rules for extended producer responsibility and supervises that companies comply with them.

Dansk Producentansvar

The national producer responsibility register, abbreviated DPA. This is where producers are registered and volumes are reported. It is not the same as the Danish Energy Agency.

Producer responsibility organisation (that is us)

A private organisation that takes over producers' legal responsibility. It validates the volumes, handles the finances and reports on to DPA on the members' behalf. In several product areas, including single-use packaging, membership of a PRO is required by law.

Read about PROs

You, the producer

You supply your volumes to us. Then you are covered, and we run the rest.

Go deeper into producer responsibility

Explore the topics that come up most, and find answers to what you are unsure about.

Producer responsibility organisation

What a PRO is, and why it is often required by law.

Free riders

Companies that are not registered. See what that means, and what it can cost.

Coming soon

Producer responsibility in the EU

The rules are built on common EU requirements. See what applies across borders.

Questions about producer responsibility

The price is set by each individual PRO, which decides its own rates. Typically you pay an environmental contribution based on the volumes you report, for example kg of packaging, and often an annual membership fee as well. The contribution is adjusted by eco-modulation, so products that are easier to recycle cost less. With us there is no notice period and no set-up fee.

You must be registered in the Danish producer register (Producentregistret, operated by DPA) at the latest 14 days before you make products available on the Danish market. In most product areas reporting to DPA is annual, for single-use plastic it is quarterly. On top of that you report regularly to your PRO, and the intervals vary from one product area to the next. We keep track of every deadline, so you always meet them on time.

Companies that make products available on the market without being registered are called free riders, and the Danish Energy Agency actively supervises this. Missing registration, reporting or payment can lead to fines, and without registration you cannot lawfully sell your products on the Danish market. The responsibility sits with you, but we get you there quickly.

The de minimis threshold is purely a packaging rule. It does not decide whether you are covered, but how you have to report your packaging. If you make less than 8 tonnes of packaging available on the Danish market in a year, it is up to you whether to report in simplified or detailed form, the latter split by material category and eco-modulated.

For single-use packaging and the other product areas you do not have to collect or treat the waste yourself. The PRO makes sure it is collected and recycled, and it is funded by the environmental contribution. Reusable packaging is the exception: there you take back the packaging you have put into circulation yourself, and you pay for treating it. You supply your volumes, and we take care of the rest.

Yes. We handle the whole transfer and sign you up with us. There is no set-up fee and no gap in your producer responsibility along the way.

Get a free assessment of your producer responsibility

Call or write, and we will work out what applies to you and take care of the rest.

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