1. What is a hybrid agreement?
It is an agreement arrangement in which a producer has a producer responsibility transfer agreement on the plastic materials of its packaging with Sumi Ltd (formerly Finnish Plastics Recycling Ltd) and on other materials with Finnish Packaging Producers Ltd (more commonly known as FPP). The agreement model dates back many years to a situation in which a single producer could have up to five separate producer responsibility transfer agreements, each with a different material-specific producer responsibility organisation.
After the mergers, the situation is now clearer: there are two options left, and each producer can freely choose its partner. After the recent Waste Act amendment, both producer responsibility organisations now handle all five packaging materials (plastic, glass, metal, paper and cardboard as well as wood).
2. Why does the agreement need to be assigned to a single producer responsibility organisation?
Pursuant to the decision of the supervisory authority, i.e. the ELY Centre for Pirkanmaa, a company may only have one producer responsibility organisation as of 1 January 2025.
The agreements of companies that still have an old hybrid-model producer responsibility agreement with multiple producer responsibility organisations will be terminated no later than 30 June 2024. This does not require the companies to take any special measures as the termination is based on an official decision that forces both producer responsibility organisations to end their old transfer agreements under the hybrid model.
Hybrid customers have all of 2024 to enter into a new the producer responsibility transfer agreement, which is why many of them will wait until the autumn for the release of the 2025 recycling fee price list in October.
If they so desire, producers can of course terminate the agreement before the summer, but they must remember to make a new agreement during this year.
This means that, by 31 December 2024, every company has selected its producer responsibility transfer partner from among the two options. The competitive situation is absolutely a benefit to producers because it enables them to choose their partner freely. Typically, the most important selection criteria are related to costs, the sorting and recycling being organised domestically, and the other value-added services provided by each producer responsibility organisation.
3. What do hybrid customers need to do with their agreements?
New agreements can be easily made through the extranet of our service company RINKI – the same body to which annual packaging kilogram reports are submitted. The service will be opened on 1 March 2024. The new agreement simultaneously terminates all old agreements and transfers the responsibilities to a single producer responsibility organisation, as required.
This can be done at any time during 2024 – the matter is not urgent. The recycling fees for 2025 will be published concurrently on 1 October 2024. Even after that, companies have the rest of the year to get their agreements in order.
If you are part of a joint agreement with multiple companies or have previously entered into a B agreement, please contact RINKI or Sumi’s personnel directly. We will be happy to handle the agreement changes with you. Over the course of May, the agreement service on RINKI’s extranet will be updated for changes related to joint agreements and B agreements.
4. What to do if you are already a full customer of Sumi or FPP?
Producers that already have a full agreement with either producer responsibility organisation for 2024 do not need to make any changes. Everything is in order, and the transfer agreement with your agreement partner will continue until further notice.
It is also perfectly acceptable to change from one producer responsibility organisation to the other, but this must be done before 30 June 2024 if the change is intended to take effect as of 1 January 2025. If the 30 June 2024 deadline is exceeded, the change in agreement partner will not come into effect on 1 January 2026.
You can make changes to the agreement partnership through RINKI’s extranet as of 1 March 2024. Before this, agreement changes can be made by contacting Rinki or the relevant producer responsibility organisation.
5. What is RINKI’s role?
Finnish Packaging Recycling RINKI Ltd acts as our service company, and producers cannot have a producer responsibility transfer agreement with it. The statutory obligation can only be fulfilled through an agreement with the producer responsibility organisation.
We use RINKI’s services for agreement management, consumer communications, reporting, invoicing and the ecopoints. RINKI’s customer service can provide wide-ranging assistance with questions related to producer responsibility. You can check your effective agreement status on the Rinki website: Registered companies – Rinkiin.fi
Sumi Ltd is a non-profit company that promotes public benefit.
It currently has almost 4,000 companies agreement customers.