Responsibilities met, Europe’s paper industry says
In the European Union, among a steady stream of directives intended to either boost recycling or to prevent “waste” from crossing borders, packaging often is a focus, and plastic is just as often the most frequently mentioned target.
When it comes to government regulation of packaging recycling, paperboard manufacturers and users typically raise objections that legislation designed to boost plastic recycling rates, unless crafted carefully, can do more harm than good in the paper recycling sector.
According to trade associations representing European paper recyclers, the inclusion of paper materials in policies designed to address difficult-to-recycle materials has occurred in extended producer responsibility (EPR) proposals, a packaging directive and an export shipment restriction policy.
Paper and recycling industry trade groups, in general, say their sectors have an existing track record of responsibility and paperboard is an unneeded target of many of these proposals.
In a November 2022 position paper on EPR systems—as defined by the EU Waste Framework Directive (WFD)—the Brussels-based European Recycling Industries Confederation (EuRIC) writes in part, “EPR schemes aim at obligating producers to design products by taking into consideration their entire life cycle and the financial responsibility for the subsequent management of [scrap] as outlined in article 8 and 8a of the WFD.”
Sursa foto: recyclingtoday.com, aici