The European Commission has proposed radical changes to the rules on packaging waste, in a move that would affect UK companies that trade with the EU.
It said proposed new EU-wide rules were needed because, on average, each European generated almost 180kg of packaging waste a year.
Packaging was among the main users of virgin materials, with 40% of plastics and 50% of paper used in the EU destined for packaging. Unless action was taken, there would be a 19% increase in packaging waste by 2030.
The Commission said the new rules aimed to stop this trend. They would ensure reusable packaging options for consumers, get rid of unnecessary packaging, limit over-packaging and provide clear recycling labels.
New business opportunities would arise, especially for smaller companies, because demand for virgin materials would reduce and Europe would become less dependent on primary resources and external suppliers.
The proposed revision of the EU legislation on packaging and packaging waste has a headline target to reduce such waste by 15% by 2040 per member state per capita, compared with 2018. It said this would lead to an overall waste reduction in the EU of some 37% compared with taking no action.
To foster reuse or refill of packaging, which the Commission said had declined steeply in the past 20 years, companies will have to offer a fixed percentage of their products to consumers in reusable or refillable packaging.
Certain forms of packaging would be banned, such as single-use packaging for food and beverages consumed inside restaurants and cafes, and for fruits and vegetables.
There would also be a mandatory deposit return system for plastic bottles and aluminium cans, as well as mandatory rates of recycled content that producers have to include in new plastic packaging.
The Commission said it also wanted to bring clarity to consumers and industry on bio-based, compostable and biodegradable plastics.
Under its proposals, biomass used to produce bio-based plastics must be sustainably sourced. Biodegradable plastics "must be approached with caution” and labelled to show how long they will take to biodegrade. Industrially compostable plastics should only be used when they have environmental benefits.
The proposals will go to the European Parliament and European Council for decisions on whether they should be introduced.
Virginia Janssens, managing director of Plastics Europe, said: “Plastics Europe is open minded regarding the Commission’s proposed reuse targets and needs to further assess their achievability, together with our value chain partners.
"Some of them will require a transformation of current business models. It is key that in developing these reuse targets, they are applied equally to all materials and a clear environmental benefit is demonstrated.”
Alexis Van Maercke, secretary general of the Association of European Producers of Steel for Packaging (APEAL), said: “Packaging plays an essential role in protecting and preserving resources such as food and reducing waste. But the value of this role can be obscured by the impact of poor recyclability and ineffective recycling.
“APEAL believes the Commission has taken a bold step to address some of these issues through this revised legislation.”
Tim Stedman, chief executive of chemical recycler Agilyx, said: “It is encouraging to see ambitious recycled content targets in plastic packaging in the Commission’s proposal.
“With growing investment in chemical recycling technologies, chemical recyclers can play a key role, complementary to mechanical recyclers, to recycle plastics typically considered to be single-use.”
Dissent came though from Metal Packaging Europe (MPE), which said the proposals “endanger the competitiveness of the European food and beverage industry and its packaging value chain”.
It said reusable and “highly recyclable one-way packaging” were complementary and necessary to the circular economy.
MPE’s chief executive Leonie Knox-Peebles said: “MPE continues to question setting reusable targets when, at the time of publication, there is no scientific evidence to confirm that reusable packaging always delivers better overall performance than optimised one-way packaging systems which achieve high recycling rates.”
She cited a recycling rate of 85.5% for steel packaging and almost 76% for aluminium beverage cans and said the commission’s proposals for deposit return systems “fall short of guaranteeing a level playing field and high collection targets among all materials, with transparent reporting and no cross-subsidisation”.
This story was updated at 3.35pm to include comment from MPE.
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