European packaging chain warns planned EU legislation could cripple entire sectors

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Players in the EU packaging value chain have expressed "serious concerns" about the European Commission’s plans for a new EU Regulation on packaging and packaging waste. In a joint statement, more than 60 European and national industry associations warned that the Commission’s current approach will result in a regulatory framework that would be "unworkable at best” and in the worst case could be "crippling for whole sectors of the European industry". This poses "significant risks of disruptions in many EU supply chains and for our trade flows”, they said.

The European Commission plans to present its proposal for new packaging legislation on 30 November. According to a current draft, it wants to replace the existing Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive (PPWD) with a Regulation, which would, among other things, establish mandatory reuse quotas, minimum recycled content levels for plastic packaging and binding waste reduction targets. The draft also sets out "design for recycling” requirements, including a negative list of packaging characteristics. However, the draft legislative proposal would not raise the minimum recycling quotas any further.

The signatory organisations see the planned proposal as an existential threat for many companies, especially SMEs. As written, the proposal risks harming producers of all packaging materials as well as the businesses that supply them and which use packaging in industry, logistics or retail, the associations warn. Among the groups backing the joint statement are the packaging umbrella association Europen and Expra, which represents the interests of extended producer responsibility (ERP) schemes....

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