Understanding your Packaging Structure: SKU, Packaging Unit & Packaging Component
If you've been asked to complete a PPWR packaging questionnaire in Simvia, you'll come across three terms that structure everything: SKU, packaging unit, and packaging component. Getting these right from the start makes the rest of the questionnaire much easier to fill in, so it's worth five minutes here before you dive in.
The short version
A product - what we call a SKU in Simvia - is what's being sold, for example Strawberry Jam 340g. (SKU isn't a term from the PPWR Regulation itself; it's simply our shorthand for the product.) That one product can be packaged at up to three independent levels, each called a packaging unit. Each packaging unit is made up of packaging components.
The three packaging unit levels
Take a jar of strawberry jam as an example:
Sales packaging (primary unit) - the unit that reaches the consumer at the point of purchase. For the jam, that's the glass jar with its metal lid and paper label. Components: glass jar, metal lid, paper label.
Grouped packaging (secondary unit) - groups multiple sales units together, for restocking, supply, or as a multipack sold to the consumer. For example, a cardboard tray with shrink film wrapped around four jars. Components: cardboard tray, shrink film.
Transport packaging (tertiary unit) - used for handling and shipping, and removed before the product reaches the shelf. For example, a corrugated shipper, a pallet, and stretch wrap holding a shipment together. We won't break this one down into components here — whether the pallet and wrap count as components of the transport unit or as packaging units in their own right can vary. Check with your Simvia contact if you need this settled for your specific case.
A single SKU can have packaging units at all three levels, or just one or two, depending on how it's shipped and sold.
Why packaging units are treated independently
Each packaging unit has its own identity and its own compliance obligations under PPWR.
The Regulation defines a "unit of packaging" in Article 3(1), point (45), as a unit, including any integrated or separate components, which as a whole serves a packaging function, such as the containment, protection, handling, delivery, storage, transport or presentation of products.
In practice, a packaging unit is typically defined by its function, not by who makes it. Two suppliers producing the identical jar, lid, and label combination are producing the same packaging unit.
This is where PPWR compliance actually attaches. The Declaration of Conformity and recyclability grade apply at the packaging unit level, not to the SKU as a whole and not to individual components in isolation. Reuse obligations can apply too, most commonly for transport packaging, but also for certain sales packaging, such as beverage packaging.
A few things a packaging unit is not, to avoid common mix-ups:
It's not the same as a SKU, one SKU can have multiple packaging units, and the same packaging unit can be shared across multiple SKUs (e.g. the same jar used for two different jam flavours).
It's not a "packaging system" sales, grouped, and transport packaging together form a system, but each unit inside should be defined separately.
What if your packaging unit doesn't exist yet in Simvia?
If you're filling in the questionnaire and don't see your packaging already listed, you'll need to build it. Start from the top down:
Identify what packaging units you have, and what your role is for each.
For each unit that applies, list the components that make it up and their material composition.
Add the unit and its components in Simvia, linked to the relevant SKU.
You don't need to guess at compliance data while doing this, the structure comes first, the supporting documentation (material composition, PFAS/heavy metals evidence, etc.) is what you will start collecting once the unit exists.