EUROPEN raises circular economy questions

Martin Reynolds of Crown Europe, who also is chairman of the Brussels-based packaging industry trade association EUROPEN, has called on EU policymakers to “secure a strong legal framework for Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) in the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive (PPWD).”

The packaging supply chain organisation also called for clarification of methodologies and definitions to ensure comparable data reporting among EU Member States based on “known starting points.” Preventing differences in interpretation, EUROPEN said, is crucial for a functioning internal market for packaging and packaged goods.

“A real circular economy for Europe cannot be achieved without an internal market that functions properly,” said Reynolds at the event. “This is a prerequisite for securing the necessary investments to boost innovation. To safeguard the internal market, we need to assess whether harmonisation between the Waste Framework Directive (WFD) and the PPWD makes sense on a case-by-case basis. Unlike the full life cycle approach in the PPWD, the WFD concerns only the waste phase and covers a wide range of ‘product waste streams’, such as consumer electricals and electronics, textiles and furniture. Packaging is not a product per se, [although] it is an integral part of the product/package system. It performs various roles and responsibilities, such as optimal preservation and protection of products, all along the value chain. These aspects go beyond the purely end-of-life considerations of the WFD, and define the separate and individual legislative context for the PPWD.”

The remarks were made during a May event hosted by Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Karl-Heinz Florenz. The event was designed to bring together members of European Parliament plus EU Member State and commission representatives and other stakeholders to discuss the Circular Economy Package (CEP) from a packaging and packaging waste perspective.

“The Circular Economy is addressing bottlenecks of the European industry and society and turning these into a great potential,” said Florenz. “We need a creative and innovative European industry in order to be prepared, to turn it into a success story and to enable new business models and new markets. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) plays a key role here as it is an important tool to design out waste, to produce longer lasting, more durable and resource efficient products,” he added.

During the discussion on EPR for packaging scrap, Hans van Bochove of Coca-Cola Enterprises, who also is EUROPEN’s vice chair, commented, “Producers have had an instrumental role in setting up EPR schemes to ensure the collection and sorting of used packaging and we take our responsibility very seriously. But we need clarity on where the responsibilities of all actors involved in packaging waste management begin and end. We also call on Member States and the Parliament to define the scope of the producer’s responsibility unambiguously and to limit it to paying the real end-of-life costs of collection and sorting for recycling of packaging waste to help meet the legal targets.”

EUROPEN bills itself as “the European Organization for packaging and the Environment” representing the opinion of the packaging supply chain in Europe on issues related to packaging and the environment. EUROPEN members include multinational corporate companies in the packaging supply chain plus six national packaging organizations.