Austria: ARA packaging declarations
ARA takes packaging declarations through the ARA Connect portal, using its own material classification. Recyclability is assessed against ARA Circular Design, which is an Austrian methodology rather than a version of the German assessment next door.
What you must do
- Declare through ARA Connect, using the ARA material classification.
- Map each component to that classification rather than reusing the German VerpackG codes, which are a different system despite the shared language and border.
- Assess recyclability against ARA Circular Design where the Austrian position is relevant.
What data you need
| Field | What the scheme needs |
|---|---|
| Material per component | Mapped to the ARA classification, which is its own and not a variant of the German codes. |
| Component weight | Per component, aggregated into the declared volumes. |
| Composite construction | Recorded as construction, because composite categorisation differs between schemes. |
| ARA Circular Design assessment | Per component, held alongside the assessments for the other markets the component reaches. |
What Merchant produces
- An ARA declaration in the material classification ARA Connect expects, generated from the same component records as every other scheme.
Common mistakes
- Treating Austria as an extension of Germany. ARA has its own material classification and its own recyclability methodology, and reusing the VerpackG mapping produces wrong categories.
- Assuming a ZSVR assessment answers the Austrian question. ARA Circular Design is a separate methodology and can place the same component differently.
- Reducing composites to a dominant material, which changes the category the component is declared under.
- Maintaining the Austrian declaration alongside the German one in a second spreadsheet, which doubles the places a component weight has to be corrected.
How Merchant helps
- Generate the ARA Connect declaration from one data set
- Assess components against ARA Circular Design
- Collect the component data the declaration depends on
Questions
Through the ARA Connect portal, using the ARA material classification.
No. ARA uses its own material classification. The proximity and the shared language make this a common assumption, and it puts volumes in the wrong categories.
The Austrian recyclability assessment methodology. It sits alongside ZSVR in Germany, COTREP and CEREC in France, KIDV in the Netherlands and RAM in the UK as one of several assessments a component can carry.
No. The component data is the same. What differs is the material mapping, the assessment methodology and the output, which is the part worth generating rather than maintaining.
Related reading
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Book a demoLast reviewed 2026-08-17