Greater awareness needed for the impact of PPWR

With the vote on the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) in the European Parliament at the end of November, it is becoming increasingly clear that the impact on businesses will be significant. With this legislation, Europe seeks to further harmonise the market in the areas of packaging waste management and the use of recycled materials. But what does that mean in practice? Fost Plus takes a closer look.

The objectives of the regulation are twofold: to improve the environmental performance of packaging and to help ensure that the European internal market works properly. The PPWR therefore focuses on three major areas:
1.    Reducing packaging waste and encouraging reuse
2.    Making it mandatory for all packaging on the European market to be reusable or recyclable on a large scale
3.    Increasing the use of recycled plastic

A scoring system for recyclability

"The starting-point is a uniform definition of what recyclable actually means,’ says Thomas De Meester, Public & Regulatory Affairs manager. ‘At the moment, each country uses its own interpretation, which makes it difficult to measure on an equal footing. That’s why a scoring system is being introduced in which packaging that scores poorly will eventually no longer be allowed on the market."

What this means in concrete terms is that from 2030 onward, packaging must be at least 70% recyclable by weight, which equates to a C score. The standards will be tightened further from 2038.

Applications for recycled material

"But recycling alone isn’t enough: businesses also need to start using recycled material. Pure waste streams, such as those already leaving the Belgian sorting centres today, are becoming all the more important. There’s a good reason why the plastic from the blue bag is now separated into ten different materials: at a stroke this increases the range of applications for recycled material."

These objectives are calculated per manufacturer and per year, and therefore not per individual type of packaging.

Reduce what is not needed

"We shouldn’t be collecting and recycling packaging that isn’t needed, which is why a number of single-use packaging types will be banned from 2030, such as plastic packaging for fruit and vegetables under 1.5 kg, or containers for take-away that’s consumed on site. There are exceptions, though. In Belgium Fost Plus aims to go beyond what is imposed, and single-use lightweight bags handed out at the till are now pretty much a thing of the past in our country."

More room for reuse

"It’s clear that recycling alone won’t save the world. Reuse is playing an increasingly important role, starting with transport packaging and e-commerce, but also for drinks. The challenge here is to get the public to return their packaging – both single-use and reusable – correctly. With consistent sorting instructions on both the packaging and the collection container, the sheer confusion that prevails today will be tackled at European level."

Such labels indicate where an item of empty packaging should be sorted, but also whether there is a deposit on it, for example.

What are the next steps?

The PPWR now needs to be ratified by the Council of the EU, and is expected to be published and to enter into force in the first few months of 2025. The text will then become officially applicable in mid-2026.

"The PPWR contains more than 300 pages, all of which have an impact on Fost Plus members to a greater or lesser extent. There is still a lot of ignorance and uncertainty about the regulation’s impact. We are guiding our members in this process and closely monitoring provisions such as Design4Recycling criteria through working groups. This enables us to give them the best advice on their packaging mix."