Taiwan publishes regulation on packaging requirements for online shopping

On February 16, 2023, the Environmental Protection Administration Executive Yuan of Taiwan announced the notice “Regulated businesses and requirements for restrictions on packaging used in internet shopping”, which will come into effect on July 1, 2023.

The regulation applies to internet retailers but individual retailers on e-commerce platform are exempted.  The restrictions include:

• Packaging materials cannot contain polyvinyl chloride (PVC)

• Paper packaging boxes and bags and cardboard products should use the material of the original colour and the mixed rate of recycled paper should be more than 90%.

• The blending ratio of recycled materials should be 25% or more for plastic packaging boxes/bags and cushioning materials.

To reduce the use of plastics, the authority also requires companies with capital above 50 million NTD to work on:

• For goods with weight between 250 gram and 1 kilogram, the weight ratios between packaging and total weight should be less than 40 %.  

•  For goods with weight between 1 kilogram and less than 3 kilograms, the weight ratios between packaging and total weight should be less than 30 %. 

• For goods with weight above 3 kilograms, the weight ratios between packaging and total weight should be less than 15 %. 

To encourage the reduction of plastic packaging, the authority also sets goals for companies with capital above 150 million to reduce to 25 % by 2024, 30% by 2025 and 35 % by 2030.