RAP for fruit and vegetable warehouse packaging: what it is and what it requires of you
Royal Decree 1055/2022 extends Extended Producer Responsibility to commercial and industrial packaging. A practical guide for your warehouse.
If your warehouse packages product and places it on the market, there is an obligation that, for a couple of years now, has stopped being just a concern for big consumer brands: Extended Producer Responsibility (RAP) applied to packaging. It was introduced by Royal Decree 1055/2022 on packaging and packaging waste, and its novelty is that it extends that responsibility to all packaging, including commercial and industrial packaging, not only household packaging as before.
It sounds like bureaucracy, but the substance is simple and has a very clear practical consequence: the less single-use packaging you place on the market, the less obligation you build up. Returnable packaging works in your favour here too.
What RAP is, in plain terms
The idea is that whoever places packaging on the market takes responsibility for what happens to that packaging once it becomes waste: financing and organising its collection and recycling. It is no longer enough to sell the packaged product and forget about it; the packaging "comes back" to you as a responsibility.
To comply, the producer must join an authorised scheme, which can be:
Individual (SIRAP), if you organise your own system.
Collective (SCRAP), the usual route, by joining an entity that manages collection and recycling for you in exchange for a contribution.
That contribution is usually calculated based on the quantity and type of packaging you place on the market. This is where the type of packaging stops being a minor detail.
Who it affects in the field
If you are a cooperative, fruit and vegetable warehouse or trading company and you package produce to sell it, you are placing packaging on the market and RAP applies to you. It is not just for the packaging manufacturer: it reaches whoever uses it to bring goods to market.
RD 1055/2022 also sets recycled content targets and reduction targets for coming years, in line with what Europe is setting too. The trend is clear and moving further in the same direction.
Why reusable packaging eases your RAP burden
Single-use packaging enters the market, becomes waste and adds to your collection and recycling obligations. A reusable bulk bin or crate that moves in a closed loop (you fill it, move it, it comes back and you fill it again) does not generate that waste season after season: the same container serves many times before reaching the end of its life.
Less single-use packaging placed on the market means less waste to answer for. It is not the main reason to switch to returnable (cost and the plastic tax weigh more heavily), but it adds up in the same direction.
What you can do
Replace single-use packaging with returnable wherever your logistics allow: buying your own fleet, renting for the season, or reconditioned used stock.
Close the loop on the packaging you do retire: what reaches the end of its life does not have to go into a construction skip. We recondition what can be reused and recycle the rest through licensed management.
Talk to your manager or your SCRAP to understand how your contribution is calculated based on the packaging you declare.
The takeaway
RAP turns the packaging you place on the market into a responsibility with a cost attached. Returnable packaging, by being reused, reduces the volume of waste you answer for and fits naturally with the rest of the regulatory picture (the plastic tax of €0.45/kg and the European reuse targets).
If you want to find a home for packaging you no longer use, or build a more returnable fleet, write to us via contact or request a quote and we will look at it with your specific volume.
