We are deeply concerned by the potential reopening of the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) as part of the upcoming Environmental Simplification Omnibus.
The PPWR is a cornerstone of the European Circular Economy and is a crucial step in establishing the necessary framework that enables truly reusable and recyclable packaging across the Single Market by 2030.
While the legislation had already been watered down in response to intense industry lobbying, it provides crucial measures to help tackle Europe’s ever-growing consumption of throwaway packaging by setting binding rules for prevention, reuse and redesign.
The Rethink Plastic Alliance is advocating for a CE Act that truly rises to the challenge and reflects the urgent need to reduce, reuse and recycle materials. Concerningly, the Call for Evidence suggests that the Commission’s main focus is on downstream measures. While we acknowledge and support the need to improve recycling in the EU, we are calling for a CE Act that accurately reflects the waste hierarchy and therefore also includes strong measures on waste prevention and reuse, while ensuring material loops are toxic-free.
Despite some shortcomings, exemptions and loopholes, the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation establishes a number of key requirements, notably on waste prevention, reuse and recyclability. It also provides many tools that governments at the national, regional and local levels can leverage to reduce packaging waste.
Though there are private investment initiatives that fund solutions (and false solutions) to plastic pollution, they are not sufficient. Public investments must step-up to enable the systemic change needed to fund real solutions to the plastic pollution crisis. Let’s explore how this can work!
Levels of packaging waste in Europe are at an all-time high. Over the last decade, its growth outpaced the economy rising faster than the volume of traded goods. The latest Eurostat data on packaging waste, published in October 2023, reaffirms this upward trajectory with a new record of 188.7 kg per capita in 2021 – a 6% increase in waste generation in only one year. The same data also reveals that recycling rates have stagnated since 2010. The packaging sector is now responsible for approximately 59 million tonnes in CO2eq, more than the annual emissions of Hungary. Packaging is also a major driver of virgin resources exploitation – using 40% of plastic and 50% of paper in Europe.
A new report by the Rethink Plastic Alliance, European Environmental Bureau, Zero Waste Europe, Fern and the Environmental Paper Network reveals the environmental harm caused by replacing single-use plastic with single-use paper packaging. The report clearly shows the need to move away from ever-polluting single-use packaging and towards well-designed reuse systems. The NGO coalition calls on the EU to seize the opportunity the Packaging and Packaging Waste regulation offers, and implement the necessary changes.
We, the signatories of this letter (civil society organisations and reuse businesses across Europe), are concerned that misinformation and intense lobbying from the single-use packaging industry and the take-away sector are undermining the need for reuse as a driver for waste prevention, resource conservation and climate protection in the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR).
This regulation represents a critical opportunity for the much-needed transition towards more circular packaging systems at a time where it is crucial to tackle emissions, pollution and resource use in all sectors. The focus of decision-makers should remain firmly on the key objective of the PPWR, which is reducing packaging waste and improving the environmental performance of this increasingly wasteful sector.
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