The European Federation of Wooden Pallet and Packaging Manufacturers (FEFPEB) has advised that the forthcoming EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) will not have significant implications for customers using wood pallets and packaging for transport.
The organisation, which represents the European pallet and packaging sector, issued a customer information statement to customers on the forthcoming regulation, which requires businesses to prove products on the EU market have not been sourced from recently deforested land or contributed to its degradation.
In a newsletter to FEFPEB’s membership, the organisation’s secretariat said packaging would only become subject to the new EUDR rules when placed on the market for the first time as a standalone product, with its status changing immediately when it is used.
“As soon as the pallet or packaging is used to support, protect or carry another product, it is no longer covered by the EUDR, even if it is listed separately on the invoice of a product or when it is returned by a retailer to its supplier,” it said. “Once the concerned packaging becomes a packaging material used exclusively as packaging material to support, protect or carry a product, it is then not covered by the scope 27 of the Regulation.” It added that selling or renting used packaging material to other companies – as happens in pallet pooling systems, for example – is not subject to EUDR.
“Similarly, empty packaging material already used for the first time to support, protect or carry another product, for instance when traded within a closed loop exchange system (i.e., pallets transferred from one company to another to be reused for transport) is not covered by the Regulation,” said FEFPEB’s advice.
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