CatCode Packaging Report

German shops that ship goods have to report how much packaging they put into circulation: grams of paper, plastic, glass and the rest, per material type, for the year. The numbers exist in the shop already — they are just spread across products, boxes and orders, and most shops end up reconstructing them in a spreadsheet in January.

This plugin records them as they happen.

You describe your packaging once as a profile: a name and the weight in grams for each material type, for example “box M with tape” = 180 g cardboard + 6 g plastic. Products point at a profile, the shipment has its own profile for the box and filling material, and every paid order stores what it actually used.

The report screen then shows kilograms per material type for any period you pick, together with the number of orders behind the figure, so the total can be sanity-checked before it is filed.

Why a snapshot per order

The weight is written to the order once, when it is paid. If you switch to a lighter box next year, last year’s figures do not silently change underneath you — which matters, because the report you already filed has to stay reproducible.

Material types

The eight types the German report asks for: glass; paper, board and cardboard; ferrous metals; aluminium; beverage carton packaging; other composite packaging; plastics; other materials. Types with no packaging are shown as zero, because the form asks for all of them and a zero is an answer.

What it does not do

It does not send anything anywhere. There is no machine interface for filing this report, so the plugin gives you the figures and you enter them yourself in the register and with your scheme operator. Nothing leaves your site — the plugin makes no external requests at all.

Not legal advice

The plugin computes what you told it about your packaging. Whether you are obliged to register, and which figures you have to file, is between you and your scheme operator.