EU PPWR votes: MEPs prepare to decide on packaging’s legislative future as industry bodies make final appeals

17 Nov 2023 --- Next week, MEPs will cast their plenary votes on the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR). The vote will have a substantial impact on the EU’s economy and environment and the industry’s future. 

The beverage bottling industry is making a final plea for priority access to rPET, following recent plastic industry accusations that it is trying to gain a monopoly on the recyclate supply that would hinder efforts to develop needed infrastructure and defy free market principles. 

Over the past year, beverage bottling companies have complained that their unrivaled success at building industry circulation by establishing DRS has been unjustly exploited by other industries (primarily textile) and is being priced out. 

This comes at the beverage industry’s expense and the expense of the EU’s circular economy ambitions, says UNESDA Soft Drinks Europe. Other associations, like Plastics Recyclers Europe, EuRic and FEAD, say there’s more than enough rPET on the market and that pricing issues are a “myth.” 

Nicholas Hodac, director general of UNESDA Soft Drinks Europe, tells Packaging Insights that the “reality is that there is a high demand for rPET from many sectors, and this demand is not expected to decrease given the new mandatory targets being proposed and the commitments made by industries all around the world.” 

The ENVI vote will determine aspects of the PPWR for next year.“The problem is that this demand also comes from those that don’t have (or don’t have yet) binding collection and recycled content targets to meet, don’t necessarily need food-grade materials and still are using food-grade rPET coming from our collected and recycled beverage bottles.” 

rPET pricing problems? 
Hodac says that despite the claims that there is more than enough rPET on the market for beverage pack producers, the gap between the price of virgin PET and rPET remains a problem for SMEs. 

“How can we really incentivize the industry to invest in recycled materials while the price difference is so big? This is a challenge for everyone, including the hundreds of SMEs that characterize the beverage industry.” 

“We should not forget that these are the great majority of companies in our sector. While we must comply with the EU’s recycled content targets, many companies have been forced to delay their investments in rPET due to this pricing issue.” 

Despite a recent drop in prices, the cost of rPET continues to be high, says Hodac, and the question of affordability is “key” to enabling the sector to achieve full circularity.

Free market standards 
A second key argument against priority access is that it would breach the free market principles integral to the bloc’s single market. 

Hodac disagrees: “If priority access would go against free market principles, it wouldn’t have been authorized anywhere in the EU. However, a priority access right is currently in place in Sweden and Slovakia and has been approved by national authorities.”

The same right was recently approved under Austrian law and will be integrated into the country’s DRS system. 

“Our call for priority access is a call for fairness: We put fully recyclable materials on the market, we pay for its collection for recycling, we have mandatory recycled content targets to comply with and our only current source of supply for food-grade rPET comes from recycled beverage bottles — we simply can’t use any other material,” says Hodac. 

“A priority access will incentivize other sectors to invest in their own circularity. It doesn’t lower the incentives for recyclers to invest in increased recycling capacities.” 

“It actually encourages recyclers to partner with other sectors to create new closed-loop systems and secure a consistent supply for those sectors. Let’s not forget that building a circular economy for beverage packaging is a shared responsibility. Other sectors must play their part in creating effective circular models for their products using their own materials.” 

By Louis Gore-Langton