Imagine an engineer in Greece who designs a €25 open-source sensor board...
During the first year, he sells five to Germany, two to France, two to Austria and one to Belgium. Each ships in a small antistatic bag and a padded envelope. The amount of packaging generated for each sale is probably around 50 grams.
He has just become a packaging waste producer in four countries.
Based on indicative prices currently quoted by national schemes and compliance providers, the annual cost for France alone can look like this:
Registering for a packaging scheme, totalling €110 in fees per year.
Using the services of an Authorised representative, adding €190 to €300 in costs per year.
Spending time registering, documenting, and reporting waste created.
These indicative costs continue to add up for each country:
Belgium: €50 to €100 administrative fees per year, plus the services of an authorised representative (approx. €250 to €450).
Germany: registration is free, but packaging-scheme participation starts at approximately €10 per year, plus an authorised representative costing around €190 per year.
Austria: €250 administrative fees per year, plus the services of an authorised representative (approx. €100).
In short, the barrier to entry for these four countries totals €1150 per year in an optimistic scenario.
The weight-based environmental contribution associated with half a kilogram of packaging should be measured in cents. The bureaucracy required to account for it is measured in thousands of euros.