Switzerland

Legal basis

Switzerland is part of EFTA (the European Free Trade Area) but has opted out of the EEA (European Economic Area), which has the legal consequence that Switzerland has no legal obligation to transpose EU Directives. To that extent, it is not bound by the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive. 

Nevertheless, Switzerland has committed to harmonise its legislation with the EU rules so as not to obstruct the exchange of goods with EU Member States. To that extent, there is no general legislation on packaging but a series of specific prescriptions for each packaging type.

Swiss law – unlike in the EU – does not aim to encompass all packaging: no general ordinance on packaging exists and none is planned for the future. Nevertheless, prescriptions concerning specific types of packaging, or their characteristics, do exist in the Beverage Containers Ordinance (2000).

Further information can be found here: https://www.admin.ch/opc/en/classified-compilation/20001238/index.html