The Essential Requirements Regulations

Introduced in 1998 and revised in 2003, these are enforced by trading standards officers. Businesses are required to ensure that:

• The minimum amount of packaging is used
• Noxious or hazardous substances in packaging are minimised
• The packaging can be recovered through at least one of the following ways:
  • recycling
  • incineration with energy recovery
  • composting or biodegradation
• Where practical, packaging must be reusable

There are also heavy metal limits applying to cadmium, mercury, lead and hexavalent chromium. These must not exceed 100 parts per million since 30 June 2001.

These heavy metals may be found in some inks used for printing on carrier bags and other types of packaging.

Further information can be found from LACORS