Toxics in Packaging Compliance

Multiwall Packaging Complies with Toxics in Packaging Requirements

State “Toxics in Packaging Laws” prohibit the intentional use of any amount of lead, cadmium, mercury and hexavalent chromium in packaging or individual packaging components, such as inks, adhesives or labels. In addition, the unintentional concentrations of the total of these four metals must be less than 100 pm.

PSSMA wants customers and other stakeholders in the U.S. multiwall industry to know that its members produce multiwall sacks in full compliance with these laws. As confirmation, U.S. multiwall manufacturers regularly obtain from their suppliers the certifications of compliance required by these laws.

It is important that users of imported packaging assure themselves that these packaging products also comply fully with the “Toxics in Packaging” requirements and obtain the certifications required by law in more than seventeen states.

Several screenings of packaging by the Toxics in Packaging Clearinghouse (TPCH) have highlighted that imported plastic packaging is most often the source of these harmful contaminants, and have confirmed repeatedly that US manufactured paper-based packaging, including multiwall sacks are in compliance with the requirements.

In its 2009 “Assessment of Heavy Metals in Packaging”, the Toxics in Packaging Clearinghouse Report concluded: that “…screening did not detect any of the restricted heavy metals in concentrations greater than 100 ppm in the 209 paper-based packaging components tested.”

The report also noted that lead or cadmium was found in 52% of flexible PVC packaging, mostly imported from China and Pakistan.

The report, “An Assessment of Heavy Metals in Packaging: 2009 Update is available for downloading from the TPCH website at www.toxicsinpackaging.org.