Supplier packaging data checklist

Why supplier data is the whole job

Almost every fact a RAM assessment needs belongs to somebody else. You know what you sell and how many units. Your suppliers know the polymer, the pigment, the adhesive chemistry, the density, the liner material and whether the spring is steel. Collecting those facts, with evidence, and keeping them current as specifications drift is the actual work.

The checklist below is organised by who you are writing to, because a single generic questionnaire sent to every supplier produces the lowest response rate and the vaguest answers.

Bottle, jar and flacon suppliers

• Polymer or glass type, and for rigid plastic the format: PET bottle, PET thermoform, HDPE, PP or other.
• Colour, stated as clear, white, translucent light blue, another colour or NIR-undetectable.
• If black or dark: the masterbatch used, and whether it is detectable by near-infrared sorting.
• Dimensions in millimetres, for the 40 mm sortation threshold.
• EVOH content as a percentage by weight, and any PVDC or polyamide barrier.
• Any additive that raises density to 1 g/cm³ or more.
• UV stabilisers, acetaldehyde blockers, external coatings or PA-3 layers.
• Recycled content percentage, and the evidence behind it.
• Component weight in grams, with tolerance.

Dispenser and closure suppliers

• A part-level breakdown of the assembly, not a datasheet for the whole pump.
• Material of the closure or actuator, and whether it floats or sinks in water.
• Presence and material of any spring, ball bearing or metal insert.
• Gasket, valve, wiper and liner materials, named specifically: silicone, PVC, PU, nylon, thermoset and so on.
• Dip tube polymer.
• For trigger sprays: whether any glass, metal or non-PE or non-PP part is present.
• Whether the consumer can separate the dispenser from the container, and how.
• Whether a spring-free or all-plastic equivalent exists in the same neck finish.

Label and decoration suppliers

• Face material, and whether it is the same polymer as the container it goes on.
• Coverage as a percentage of container surface area, per SKU rather than per label.
• Density over 1 g/cm³, which is the deciding fact on PET bottles.
• Adhesive behaviour in a 70–90°C hot wash, with a test report rather than an assurance.
• Any metallised, foil or aluminium element.
• Silicone release coating as a percentage of label weight, for paper labels.
• Ink compliance with the EuPIA exclusion policy.

Carton, sleeve and outer suppliers

• Non-paper content as a percentage by weight.
• Surface treatments: greaseproof, siliconised, waxed, or wax dispersion coating.
• PVDC or PVC dispersion coatings.
• Foil blocking or lamination, and the foil thickness, against the 6 µm threshold.
• Internal adhesive lamination with PET, metallised PET or PET-PE.
• Non-wood fibres.
• Glitter, which is a collection-stage red for paper and board.
• For sleeves: material, coverage percentage, and whether removal guidance is printed.

The evidence to request

Ask for the fact and the document in the same breath. The types worth naming explicitly are supplier specifications, material statements, test reports (particularly wash-off and detectability testing), certificates, recycled content evidence, packaging drawings and take-back scheme evidence where a material depends on it. Declarations are acceptable and common, but record them as declarations rather than as verified facts, because the difference matters when a rating is challenged.

How to phrase the request

• One part number at a time. A request tied to a specific part gets answered. A request covering a catalogue gets forwarded and lost.
• Say why. Suppliers respond faster to a named regulatory driver than to an unexplained form. RAM 2027 and packaging EPR are both easy to reference.
• Ask closed questions. Does the closure contain any steel, aluminium, PS, PVC or thermoset component, yes or no, beats tell us about your closure materials.
• Make not known an acceptable answer. A guess that reads as a fact is worse than a recorded gap, because it will be treated as evidence by whoever reads it next year.
• Give a date and a consequence. Missing facts are treated as red under the methodology, and suppliers respond to that framing.
• Ask to be told about changes. A change-notification clause in the supply agreement is worth more than an annual questionnaire.

Keeping provenance

When the answer arrives, record who provided it, when, on what document, and what verification status it carries: unreviewed, supplier declared, confirmed by your organisation, independently verified, rejected or expired. Then attach it to the shared component rather than to one SKU, so a single answer settles the question everywhere that part is used. Set a review date, because material statements go stale and tooling changes without anyone telling marketing.

Checklist

• Split requests by supplier type, and send them per part number.
• Request the fact and the supporting document together.
• Prioritise components shared across many SKUs.
• Record verification status honestly; a declaration is not a test report.
• Set review dates and a change-notification expectation.

Running one pack through the RAM 2027 readiness checker first is a quick way to work out exactly which questions you need to ask.