Ahead of the approaching deadline for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to register the chemicals used in their production processes, the European Plastics Distributors Association (EPDA, Salisbury / UK; www.epda.com) has urged plastics suppliers to make sure they comply with the latest REACH legislation for restricted substances. On 1 June 2015, the European Chemicals Agency's (ECHA, Helsinki / Finland; http://echa.europa.eu) latest Classification, Labelling and Packaging (CLP) regulation went into effect, EPDA pointed out, adding that this requires plastic resin suppliers to provide a safety data sheet for any substance classified as dangerous by the Dangerous Preparations Directive.

The latest regulation requires the relabelling of a sizeable number of goods, EPDA said, adding that producers need to communicate enough information along the supply chain to ensure their products are safely used. The distributors’ association added that the unambiguous identification of substances is also a prerequisite for the European Union’s REACH regulation, under which companies are required to register all potentially hazardous chemicals. The deadline for plastics companies that produce or import substances in low volumes, ranging from 1-100 t/y, goes into effect on 31 May 2018.

EPDA warned that the situation is quite fluid and materials that are not yet on ECHA's list of concern could be added in the following years. As producers of semi-finished plastic goods, EPDA members are only required to inform and notify about the substances used in their product – they do not need to register.

EPDA added that it hopes that once the EU registration process is completed, the knowledge gained from the information in ECHA’s database will improve the competitiveness of the European plastics industry.