EU institutions take an important step to prevent packaging waste and promote reuse, but reckless loopholes for throwaway packaging risk undermining EU efforts

 

 

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On Monday, 4 March 2024, negotiations on the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) were concluded. The compromise deal struck between negotiators from the Council and the European Parliament brings a long and intense political struggle to address the concerns about ever-increasing amounts of packaging waste to a close.

Despite the unprecedented pressures and negative lobbying, EU institutions finally agreed on a set of rules to prevent the generation of packaging waste, promote reuse systems and reduce our dependence on single-use packaging; according to the press releases by the institutions.
To stop the uncontrolled growth of packaging waste the EU is setting binding packaging reduction targets for its Member States (5% by 2030, 10% by 2035 and 15% by 2040), as well as reuse targets for certain packaging segments, including beverages and transport packaging.

The coalition of NGOs working on EU packaging rules applauds stricter provisions on substances of concern and direct restrictions on a group of harmful and extremely persistent chemicals (PFAS) in food packaging. It is expected that a mandatory future report on the presence of substances of concern in packaging will bring more clarity about the extent to which they negatively affect circularity, as well as chemical safety and impact on human and environmental health.

 

 

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