LABORATORIES

SIGRE is a not-for-profit organisation funded by contributions from pharmaceutical laboratories for each product sold through pharmacies.

By applying the measures in the Packaging Prevention Plan, laboratories under the SIGRE scheme help to reduce the size and weight of medicine packaging, make them less polluting and more easily recyclable, which reduces their environmental impact.

SIGRE helps the pharmaceutical industry to respect its principal obligations under environmental legislation (Law 11/1997 of 24 April 1997 on Packaging and Packaging Waste) and healthcare legislation (Law 29/2006 of 26 July 2006 on Guarantees and Rational Use of Medicines and Healthcare Products), by collecting and managing packaging waste and unused medicines generated in private homes.

 

Law 11/1997 of 24 April 1997 on Packaging and Packaging Waste sets out to minimise production of packaging waste and to guarantee that such waste is managed correctly by applying the principle of shared responsibility between the different business operators involved in their marketing and consumption chain. Thus, under the terms of Articles 6 and 7 of this law, "packagers and sellers of packaged products or, when these cannot be identified, the party responsible for the first placing on the market of the packaged products", are obliged to set up a system of deposit, refund and return or to join an integrated management system.

Article 2(12) of the Packaging Law describes packagers as "business operators which package products or import or acquire such products in other EU Member States to place them on the market".