ETO

Non-Profit Organisation Eesti Taaskasutusorganisatsioon (ETO) is the first accredited producer responsibility organisation in Estonia engaged in the selective collection and recycling of packaging waste since 2004.

ETO is connecting obliged industry from several fields of business activities: producers of packaging products, importers, retail trade and producers of packaging.

ETO is a member of the Packaging Recovery Organisation Europe PRO EUROPE and the Extended Producers Responsibility Association EXPRA.

ETO customers have the right to use The Green Dot (der Grüne Punkt) marking on packaging in Estonia. The Green Dot on the packaging means that for such packaging a financial contribution has been paid to a qualified national packaging recovery organisation that has been set up in accordance with the principles defined in European Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive 94/62 and the respective national law.

The Estonian Packaging Act stipulates a definition of packaging obliged industry as following:  packaging undertaking means any person who packages, imports, or sells packaged goods within their economic or professional activities.

Producers and importers have to keep in-house records on packaging materials and their quantities. Producers and importers are responsible for taking back and recovering their packaging waste according to the required amounts in packaging and packaging excise tax legislation.
Packaging companies can fulfill the take-back and recovery obligations individually or join an accredited packaging organisation MTÜ Eesti Taaskasutusorganisatsioon (ETO). ETO is collecting packaging waste nationwide in cooperation with waste operators.

ETO service fees cover all costs of collection, sorting, transport and recovery costs.

Packaging Act stipulates packaging as all products made of any materials of any nature to be used for the containment, protection, handling, delivery and presentation of goods, from raw materials to processed goods, from the producer to the user or the consumer. Non-returnable items used for the same purpose are also considered to constitute packaging.

The types of packaging material are the following:
1) glass means all fused inorganic glass types which belong to Chapter 70 of the Combined Nomenclature pursuant to Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 on the tariff and statistical nomenclature and on the Common Customs Tariff (OJ L 256, 7.9.1987, p. 1–675);
2) plastic means all natural and artificial polymer-based materials in both single and multi-layer embodiment which belong to Chapter 39 of the Combined Nomenclature pursuant to Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87;
3) metal means steel which belongs to Chapter 73 of the Combined Nomenclature, aluminium which belongs to Chapter 76 of the Combined Nomenclature, and other metals which are used as packaging materials and belong to Section XV (Base metals and articles of base metal) of the Combined Nomenclature pursuant to Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87;
4) paper and paperboard, including composite paperboard, which belongs to Chapter 48 of the Combined Nomenclature pursuant to Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87;
5) wood;
6) other material.

Classes of packaging:
1) sales packaging or primary packaging means part of a sales unit designated to be handed over to the end-user or consumer at the place of sale.
2) grouped packaging or secondary packaging is meant for grouping a certain number of sales units at the place of sale regardless of whether the grouped packaging is sold as such to the end-user or consumer or whether it serves only as a means to facilitate the handling of goods, or protection or presentation of goods, whereas grouped packaging can be removed from the product without affecting its characteristics;
3) transport packaging or tertiary packaging is meant for handling and transport of a certain number of sales units or goods in grouped packaging in order to prevent transport damage, whereas transport packaging does not include road, rail, sea and air containers.

Depending on the possibility of reusing packaging, the subclasses of packaging are as follows:
1) reusable packaging is intended and designed to pass at least several rotations or circles in the reuse system during its life cycle, depending on the intended use, possibility, and fitness for the use of the packaging;
2) non-reusable packaging is meant only for single use.