Join Sumi

Companies are responsible for their packaging

In Finland, there is legislation on producer responsibility, which means that producers are required to organize the waste management of the products they place on the market and cover the costs incurred. Producers are those who package their own products as well as importers of packaged products. The easiest way for producers to fulfil their producer responsibility is to join a producer organisation.

When a company joins the producer responsibility system, it transfers its collection and recycling obligations to the producer organisation. There are only two things left for the company itself to do:

• Reporting packaging data

• Paying producer responsibility fees based on the reported packaging data
  

Sumi is responsible for the collection and recycling of glass, metal, plastic, paper, cardboard and wood packaging in Finland.

Distance selling and foreign operators

Foreign online stores must join a producer responsibility organisation if they sell products by distance selling directly to end users in Finland.

A producer responsibility transfer agreement with Sumi may also be concluded by an online marketplace operator, an authorised representative, or an operator equivalent to a producer, or by an authorised representative appointed by any of the above.

An operator equivalent to a producer is a company established in another country that places packaged products on the Finnish market through means other than distance selling. This may include, for example, an internationally operating company that supplies its products to a Finnish importer.

As an online marketplace operator, you may assume responsibility for the producer responsibility obligations of distance sellers operating on your platform.

An authorised representative assumes producer responsibility on behalf of a foreign company and fulfils all obligations related to producer responsibility in its place. These include waste management (collection, transport, recycling, and associated costs) by joining a producer responsibility organisation, notifying on whose behalf the producer responsibility is fulfilled, reporting packaging data, and paying all producer responsibility–related fees.

Why choose Sumi Oy?

• We only use domestic recycling partners

• We cost-efficiently manage the legally required functions for fulfilling producer responsibility obligations and meeting recycling targets

• We bring innovation to the entire producer responsibility sector

• We secure the availability of recycled raw material for Finnish industry by using only domestic sorting partners

• We aim, in line with the Finnish Government Programme, to increase the self-sufficiency of the circular economy

• Through our partner network, you can also arrange producer responsibility transfer agreements internationally

• We offer our customers, among other things, free recycling coach services, and on our website you will find the industry’s most advanced AI, which you can ask anything related to producer responsibility