S.L. 549.43 Art. 3Interpretation.

(1) In these regulations, unless the context otherwise requires:

"the Act" means the Environment Protection Act;

"the Agency" means the Circular Economy Malta established by the

Circular Economy Malta (Establishment) Order;

"agreement" means the formal agreement concluded between the competent authority and the producers concerned, which has to be open to all partners who wish to meet the conditions of the agreement with a view to working towards the objectives of these regulations; "authorised packaging waste recovery organisation" means a producer responsibility organisation as defined in regulation 3 of the Extended Producer Responsibility Framework Regulations as authorised by the competent authority in accordance with these regulations, whose members, by virtue of these regulations and their membership of that organisation, are exempt from part of these regulations;

"authorised waste management undertaking" means an undertaking that holds a valid permit issued by the relevant competent authority under national laws and regulations relating to environmental protection; "categories of packaging" means packaging made of glass, plastic, paper and board, metal, wood or any other material; "the competent authority" means the Environment and Resources Authority and such other body or person as the Minister may by order in the Gazette, prescribe and different bodies or persons may be designated as the competent authority for different provisions and different purposes of these regulations;

"composite packaging" shall mean packaging made of two or more layers of different materials which cannot be separated by hand and form a single integral unit, consisting of an inner receptacle and an outer enclosure, that it is filled, stored, transported and emptied as such;

"to convert" means to use or modify packaging or packaging material in the production or formulation of packaging;

"distributor" means any natural or legal person in the supply chain, who provides packaging, packaging material or packaged goods on a professional basis to the party who is going to use it, mainly the final retailer or the final consumer. This definition does not prevent a distributor from being, at the same time, a producer within the meaning of the term "producer"; "Extended Producer Responsibility Consultative Committee" or

"EPR Consultative Committee" means the committee established under regulation 5 of the Extended Producer Responsibility Framework Regulations;

"filler" or "packer" means a person who puts goods into packaging, and "fill" and "pack" shall be construed accordingly; "generated packaging waste" means the amount of packaging that becomes waste within the meaning of regulation 4 of the Waste

Regulations within the territory of Malta, after having been used to contain, protect, handle, deliver and present goods;

"incidental presence" means the presence of a metal as an unintended ingredient of a packaging or packaging component;

"intentional introduction" means the act of deliberately utilising a substance in the formulation of a packaging or a packaging component where its continued presence is desired in the final packaging or packaging component to provide a specific characteristic, appearance or quality and "intentionally introduced" shall be construed accordingly. The use of recycled materials as feedstock for the manufacture of new packaging materials, where some portion of the recycled materials may contain amounts of regulated metals, is not considered intentional introduction; "lightweight plastic carrier bags" means plastic carrier bags with a wall thickness below 50 microns "making available on the market" means any supply of packaging, packaging material or packaged goods for distribution, consumption or use on the market in Malta in the course of a commercial activity, whether in return for payment or free of charge; "the Minister" means the Minister responsible for the Environment Protection Act and the Product Safety Act respectively; "municipal packaging waste" means the share of packaging waste in municipal waste as defined in the Waste Regulations; "oxo-degradable plastic carrier bags" means plastic carrier bags made of plastic materials that include additives which catalyse the fragmentation of the plastic material into micro-fragments; "packaging" means all products made of any materials of any nature to be used for the containment, protection, handling, delivery and presentation of goods, from raw materials to processed goods, from the producer to the user or the consumer. "Non-returnable" items used for the same purposes shall also be considered to constitute packaging;

"packaging" consists only of -

(a) sales packaging or primary packaging, which is packaging conceived so as to constitute a sales unit to the final user or consumer at the point of purchase;

(b) grouped packaging or secondary packaging, which is packaging conceived so as to constitute at the point of purchase a grouping of a certain number of sales units whether the latter is sold as such to the final user or consumer or whether it serves only as a means to replenish the shelves at the point of sale; it can be removed from the product without affecting its characteristics;

(c) transport packaging or tertiary packaging, which is packaging conceived so as to facilitate handling and transport of a number of sales units or grouped packagings in order to prevent physical handling and transport damage. Transport packaging does not include road, rail, ship and air containers: Provided that:

(i) items shall be considered to be packaging if they fulfil the abovementioned definition without prejudice to other functions which the packaging might also perform, unless the item is an integral part of a product and it is necessary to contain, support or preserve that product throughout its lifetime and all elements are intended to be used, consumed or disposed of together;

(ii) items designed and intended to be filled at the point of sale and ‘disposable’ items sold, filled or designed and intended to be filled at the point of sale shall be considered to be packaging provided they fulfil a packaging function;

(iii) packaging components and ancillary elements integrated into packaging shall be considered to be part of the packaging into which they are integrated. Ancillary elements hung directly on, or attached to, a product and which perform a packaging function shall be considered to be packaging unless they are an integral part of this product and all elements are intended to be consumed or disposed of together. The items listed in Schedule 1 are illustrative examples of the application of these criteria; "packaging waste" means any packaging or packaging material covered by the definition of waste in the Waste Regulations, excluding production residues;

"placing on the market" means the first making available of packaging, packaging material or packaged goods on the market in Malta; "plastic" means a polymer within the meaning of Article 3(5) of Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council, to which additives or other substances may have been added, and which is capable of functioning as a main structural component of carrier bags; "plastic carrier bags" means carrier bags, with or without handle, made of plastic, which are supplied to consumers at the point of sale of goods or products; "economic operator" means a person who for the purpose of trade or otherwise in the course of business, imports, manufactures, converts, distributes, fills, packs, sells or otherwise supplies to other persons or otherwise puts packaging material or packaging, or packaged products, on the market; and "produce" shall be construed accordingly;

"producer" means any natural or legal person who:

(a) is established in Malta and manufactures packaging or packaging material to be placed on the market in Malta;

(b) is established in Malta and puts on the market of Malta, on a professional basis, packaging, packaging material or packaged goods, from a third country or from another EU Member State;

(c) sells packaging or packaging material by means of distance communication as defined in the Consumer

Rights Regulations directly to consumers in Malta and is established in another EU Member State or third country."; "product loops which are in a closed and controlled chain" means product loops in which products circulate with a controlled reuse and distribution system and in which the recycled material originates only from these entities in the chain so that the introduction of external material is just the minimum technically feasible and from which these entities may only be removed in a specially authorised procedure so that return rates are maximised; "refillable gas cylinders" means refillable cylinders used for various kinds of gas, but excludes fire extinguishers; "Regional Council" means a regional council established by the

Local Government Act; "reusable packaging" shall mean packaging which has been conceived, designed and placed on the market to accomplish within its lifecycle multiple trips or rotations by being refilled or reused for the same purpose for which it was conceived;

"seller" means a person who supplies packaging to a user or a consumer of that packaging, whether or not the filling of the package has taken place at the time of the supply, and "sell" shall be construed accordingly. "very lightweight plastic carrier bags" means plastic carrier bags with a wall thickness below 15 microns which are required for hygiene purposes or provided as primary packaging for loose food when this helps to prevent food wastage.

(2) The definitions "disposal", "waste", "waste management", "collection", "separate collection", "prevention", "reuse", "treatment", "recovery" and "recycling" shall have the same meaning as that laid down in regulation 4 of the Waste Regulations and the definition

"extended producer responsibility scheme" shall have the same meaning as that laid down in the Extended Producer Responsibility Framework Regulations.