European NGOs urge reusable packaging adoption for PPWR compliance
Rethink Plastic alliance members, including the Environmental Coalition on Standards (ECOS), Break Free From Plastic, Zero Waste Europe, and ClientEarth (Europe), are encouraging EU governments to adopt reusable packaging to reduce waste and ensure regulatory compliance.
Packaging Insights discusses the newly released roadmap titled, “Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) Implementation: A roadmap for national & local governments to slash record levels of packaging waste,” with Mathias Falkenberg, Environmental Coalition on Standards program manager at ECOS.
ECOS says that single-use packaging is a “major contributor” to the ongoing “waste crisis.” The organization states that while the EU’s newly implemented PPWR regulation is “lacking in some areas,” it could play a role in ameliorating “Europe’s out-of-control packaging crisis.”
The PPWR establishes requirements for the entire life-cycle of packaging as regards environmental sustainability and labeling. Falkenberg tells us that: “For member states to reach the national waste prevention targets, the PPWR’s measures need to be accompanied by additional measures.”
“These should include measures that fully internalize the cost of single-use packaging on our societies and on the environment. Fiscal measures should be part of the policy mix.”
Reuse is key to compliance
The roadmap highlights how national and local governments in the EU can implement the PPWR “with a high level of ambition to slash record levels of packaging waste.”
Deposit return system requirements across the EU will be crucial to meeting the PPWR goals, the NGOs say.The document points to reuse as the key to reducing packaging waste and mitigating “substances of concern” and microplastics. The organizations say that broader implementation of separate collection and deposit return system requirements across the EU will be crucial to meeting PPWR goals.
The document advises EU member states to set broader and stronger reuse targets for the three sectors included in the PPWR (grouped packaging, transport/e-commerce packaging, and beverage packaging). It also suggests setting targets for additional packaging sectors, such as binding reuse targets for the takeaway sector.
“Governments shared their positions during negotiations at the EU level,” says ECOS’ Falkenberg. “The PPWR, with its many exemptions and derogations, is a result of diverging views.”
“We do expect to see leaders and laggers, but positions can change following elections, for instance. It is important to note that the objective to reverse the trend of ever-increasing packaging waste was not put into question and we do expect governments to revert to reusable packaging as a tool to cut waste.”
Addressing some industry groups’ concerns regarding how binding reuse targets could increase costs for businesses and consumers, Falkenberg says: “Reusable packaging systems can be competitive when well managed and operated at scale and when the full cost of high-quality recycling of single-use packaging is internalized in businesses’ cost calculations.”
