02/09/2026
When regulations make small dreams impossible… 💔
Dear friends,
I have some very sad news to share 💔
Since august 12th, new (European) EPR regulations on packaging mean that I can no longer sell my products outside Belgium to other European countries without having to deal with different obligations, registrations, reporting requirements, systems and, above all… costs for each individual country.
I fully support sustainability and responsible waste management. As a tea sommelier, I work with products, packaging, raw materials and materials every single day, and I believe it is only natural that we handle these responsibly.
But these new EPR regulations have also made me realise, as a small Belgian entrepreneur, just how difficult it is becoming to simply… run a business and pursue your dreams.
I am not a multinational company with a legal department, compliance team and administrative staff.
I am simply a small entrepreneur with a passion for tea, trying to build something beautiful with my little business, RELeaSe Tea.
And it makes me wonder:
We hear so much in Europe about free movement of goods and the European Single Market. A market without internal borders, where goods can move freely between European countries and businesses have access to hundreds of millions of consumers.
But how free is that market for a small entrepreneur when sending a few packages across a border suddenly means dealing with a whole range of additional national obligations, registrations, administration and costs?
If I can send my products to another European country without customs or a physical border, but the administrative border keeps getting higher… how free is that market in practice?
Europe wants to tackle waste and packaging waste through these regulations. I understand that.
But when the administrative and financial burden becomes so high that a small entrepreneur is forced to decide not to sell to other European countries at all, I cannot help but wonder whether we are missing the point.
Because behind every small business, there is a person.
A person doing administration late in the evening after a long day of work.
A person developing products, packing orders, preparing shipments and answering customers.
A person investing with limited resources.
A person who does not have a lawyer, compliance department or administrative team for every new regulation.
And above all… a person with dreams.
For me, this means that I am stopping all my sales outside Belgium.
Not because I want to.
Not because there is no interest... Quite the opposite.
But because the costs and administration simply no longer make sense in relation to the small amount of revenue generated by these sales.
And that hurts deeply.
Because it doesn't only mean giving up on sales.
It also means that ideas, projects and beautiful dreams are being stopped before they even have the chance to grow.
Apocalypteaca is one of those projects.
It is something I have been working on with enormous enthusiasm, passion and dedication for 11 years. A concept I truly believe still has so much potential, and one I would have loved to develop further.
But when expanding into every new European market brings another layer of administration, registrations, reporting and costs, it becomes increasingly difficult for a small entrepreneur to grow, experiment and try something new.
And isn't entrepreneurship also about daring to dream?
About having an idea. Working it out. Trying something new.
Fascinating collaborations. Growing step by step.
And perhaps one day… crossing borders ?
Not about wondering whether you are big enough to carry all the additional European obligations and costs just to fulfil a handful of foreign orders.
I am absolutely not against regulations.
I am critical when regulations designed for a large system place a disproportionate burden on the very small businesses that are least equipped to deal with them.
We often hear that Europe wants to stimulate entrepreneurship, innovation and sustainability.
Then let's also make sure that the small entrepreneur, who often works locally, tries to operate sustainably and is building something with passion, isn't pushed out of the system by mountains of administration and costs.
The European Single Market may be one large market without borders on paper... But in practice, small businesses should not be faced with invisible administrative walls that make cross-border entrepreneurship simply impossible.
I am writing this not only out of frustration.
I am writing this because I strongly suspect that I am far from the only small entrepreneur facing this reality.
Maybe you recognise this.
Maybe you have already had to abandon a project because the costs and administration became impossible to justify.
Or maybe you are a customer of a small business and don't realise that, for that entrepreneur, sending an order across a European border today means so much more than simply putting a package in the mail.
So if you believe that small entrepreneurs deserve to be heard too:
PLEASE SHARE THIS MESSAGE.
Not as a protest against sustainability.
But in support of a system where sustainability, entrepreneurship, free trade and common sense can go hand in hand.
A system that takes the reality of small businesses into account.
And perhaps most importantly: a European-wide system that makes it financially and administratively possible for small entrepreneurs to do business across borders.
Because regulations should help us build a better future.
They should not make small dreams impossible 💔
Apocalyptica Eicca Toppinen Perttu Kivilaakso Paavo Lötjönen
