It is crunch time for new packaging rules in the EU next week, as member states vote on the packaging and packaging waste regulation (PPWR).
PPWR is the most lobbied file of this legislature. Articles 22 and 26, which relate to restrictions on single-use packaging used by foodservice companies (the so-called HoReCa sector) and the reuse targets, are where the key battles are being fought.
The original plans, published by the European Commission this time last year, included a ban on single-use packaging for food and drink filled and consumed on the premises, as well as single-use packaging for individual servings of everything from condiments and creamers to sugars and seasoning. Reusable packaging targets were for 20% of hot and cold drinks, 10% of takeaway food and 10% of alcoholic drinks to come in reusable or refillable packaging by 2030. Far steeper targets were planned for 2040.
But last month derogations were added in what is widely seen as a ‘watering down’ of the requirements. NGOs have argued that amendments made since the European Commission’s original proposals have seen the focus diverted from reuse and reduction and back to recycling and single-use. As it stands the rules could also run contrary to the bloc’s circular economy plans and the waste hierarchy that underpins all such regulations. “The position adopted [by the European Parliament] turns the waste hierarchy on its head,” wrote Zero Waste Europe on X.
One derogation to the reuse targets stipulates: if a member state can report that it has an 85% recycling rate for specific single-use packaging then that packaging is exempted to comply with the target. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF), which has been working with the world’s largest corporations on its global plastics commitment and struggling to drive uptake of reusable packaging, has warned that this made the reuse target actually feel like another recycling target.
A leaked draft of PPWR, reported by Ends Europe this week, suggests more targets could be watered down.
Currently, it appears that nobody is happy – apart from the paper industry, which has lobbied hard to ensure single-use paper packaging is seen as the only solution in foodservice settings. Italy and Finland have led the charge to force through changes that will reduce the ambition of PPWR significantly.
Matti Rantanen, director general at the European Paper Packaging Alliance, which claims to have produced scientific evidence that its members’ products are greener than reusable options, recently said the choice facing MEPs was between (reusable) plastic and (single-use) paper. “Choosing reusable over recyclable means definitively choosing plastic over paper. Can that really be the right choice?,” he wrote in a blog for Politico.
Earlier this year, a group of scientists challenged some of the findings in the industry-led reports. “Garbage in, garbage out,” said Dario Cottafava, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Turin and one of the lead signatories of a letter to MEPs signed by 58 academics.
The letter detailed the limitations of life cycle assessments (LCAs), which are static snapshots of the environmental impacts of a product and as such must be carefully evaluated. “[…] small variations in assumptions (the rate of return, breakage rate, or weight) completely affect outputs and results and can undermine their validity,” Cottafava explained. The letter stressed that comparing single-use packaging with such static snapshots of reuse options is misleading.
The tactics employed by the likes of the EPPA and McDonald’s – the fast food chain having fronted a public-facing campaign that promotes single-use over reuse – has outraged green groups and consumer organisations.
A coalition of NGOs this week produced a technical paper showing that reuse and restrictions of unnecessary packaging are “the most environmentally impactful measures proposed in the packaging regulation. Undermining these measures risks permitting 7.3 million tonnes of additional packaging waste on the market by 2030 and 3.5 million tonnes of CO2e in 2030.”
They also said the changes being made to PPWR “ignore the waste hierarchy creating a conflict with the waste framework directive”.
EU ambassadors are meeting to discuss the latest PPWR text today (Friday 15th, December). Member states will then hope to formally adopt a general approach at a meeting of environment ministers next week.
