CEPI reminds EU legislators of paperboard circularity

The Brussels-based Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI) says a closed-loop definition proposed in the European Union makes no sense for paper and board because different paper products are “efficiently recycled together.”

In the EU, its Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation in many ways has been structured with plastic packaging in mind, largely because of the material’s lower recycling rate and unfavorable public perception.

Almost certainly for that reason, CEPI says the EU Parliament’s Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) has endorsed definitions of "recyclability" and "high quality of recycling" that CEPI says disregards much of the practical experience of a well-functioning recycling system for paper and board.

“The text voted [Oct. 24] by the ENVI Committee includes a requirement to recycle packaging in a closed product loop, meaning that it is recycled in the same or a similar product application. This makes no sense for paper and board, where different paper products are efficiently recycled together," CEPI says.

“Recycling in the same product application would be an unnecessary barrier to paper recycling without bringing any benefits to its quality. It would also require increased transport of packaging for recycling within Europe in order to direct packaging to specific mills.”

CEPI urges the EU to consider a more widely defined material loop rather than a closed one. “A better point of reference for the definitions would have been the quality of recycled materials and their potential to substitute primary raw materials,” the organization says.

The success of this model is backed up by the paper and paperboard sector’s numbers, CEPI says. “Recycling is the main source of fiber for the pulp and paper packaging sector, lowering the need for wood," the group adds. "Today, 75 percent of paper-based packaging is made from recycled materials. This ‘circular first’ sourcing of material is part of an economic model that places Europe as the global recycling champion.”

CEPI also says that in the EU, paper and board packaging is recycled more than all other materials combined in the packaging sector.

In Europe in 2022, 49.1 million tons of paper for recycling were used to make new paper and board out of the 54.9 million metric tons collected. Much of the rest was exported to make recycled-content paper and board overseas.

“With an 82.5 percent recycling rate for paper packaging, paper and board also already far exceeds legal recycling targets set for 2025, which are the most stringent amongst all materials,” CEPI states. The association says it nonetheless has set a target to reach a 90 percent recycling rate by 2030.

The association says it favors separate collection of paper and board as a way to reach that target, a perspective with which the EU Parliament agrees, having introduced a 90 percent separate collection target for packaging materials by 2029.

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While reuse is another technique favored by the EU Parliament, paperboard may not stand to gain from that trend. Instead, CEPI says the EU should take into account that paper packaging is not only highly recycled, but sourced from renewable content and in a way that is resource-efficient. A circular model would recognize the benefits of packaging made of renewable material and with a high recycling performance.

“It is not too late for the Parliament, as the institution representing the voice of EU citizens, to acknowledge all the benefits of the EU so efficiently recycling a material that is renewable, and sustainably sourced and managed," CEPI Director General Jori Ringman says.

“This is already a world-class recycling system, the result of billions of euros of private but also public investment. We should not aim to break what works, but to make it better.”