EU Proposal Would Increase Package Recycling

The European Commission has introduced a proposal that would mandate all European Union countries recycle more than half of all packaging materials by 2006.

The plans toughen existing targets introduced in 1994, but have disappointed environmentalists by steering clear of specific measures to encourage the reuse or elimination of packaging waste or to make companies legally responsible for the packaging they produce.

For consumers, the proposals are likely to increase costs. However, the EC believes its preferred approach of stiff recovery and recycling targets will prove less expensive in the long run than other forms of waste management.

Each EU state would have to guarantee that 55-70 percent of packaging material was recycled by 2006. In addition to these targets, countries would be forced to "recover" some packaging. "Recovery" includes processes such as composting, but mainly involves incinerating waste and using the energy generated. Specific recycling targets have also been proposed for glass, paper, metals and plastics.

"We welcome the fact that the Commission has limited itself to revising the targets," said Julian Carroll, managing director of Europen, a group representing companies producing the raw materials for packaging as well as packaging makers and big food companies which are big users of packaging. "All other issues should be the subject of a longer-term look at our whole approach to this issue."

"The targets are not as easy as they look," Carroll said. "We're rather skeptical of the calculations that have been done of the costs of all this." The Financial Times.