In accordance Article 3 of Royal Decree 782/1998, which develops the regulation for the execution of the Packaging Act, packagers that during a natural year market an amount of packaged products likely to generate packaging waste in amounts exceeding the following are obliged to draw up a Business Prevention Plan:

• 250 t, if waste consists exclusively of glass
• 50 t, if waste consists exclusively of steel
• 30 t, if waste consists exclusively of aluminium
• 21 tif waste consists exclusively of plastic
• 16 t, if waste consists exclusively of wood
• 14 t, if waste consists exclusively of cardboard or compound materials (e.g. drinks cartons)
• 350 t, if waste consists of different materials and none of them, individually, exceeds the above amounts

The plans must serve for packagers to set an objective for the reduction of the packaging waste generated when marketing products. These plans must be approved by the competent body of the autonomous community in which the measures envisaged in the plan are implemented. In the case of Catalonia this body is the Waste Agency of Catalonia. Plans are valid for three years and, once approved, an annual monitoring report should be submitted on the reduction measures taken.

Packagers may submit business plans for the prevention of packaging waste as individuals or on a sectoral level (grouping several companies together), through the integrated management system (IMS) provided that the packaging company is registered in the system; they may also submit plans through sectoral business associations.