Proposed revisions PPWD fail when it comes to bio-based

The newly announced proposed revisions to Europe’s Packaging and Packaging Waste directive contains a plethora of suggested improvements aimed at boosting the circularity of packaging, with a focus on the need to accelerate and increase the reuse and recycling of all packaging.
The Commission’s failure to include bio-based plastics targets in the proposals and to endorse the use of bio-based materials as a means to decouple the use of plastics from the growth of greenhouse gas emissions is, said biopolymers producer Braskem, a missed opportunity.
The company notes that bio-based plastics, such as Braskem’s I’m green, can be re-used and recycled in existing waste streams. While the fuels sector has adopted mandates for responsibly sourced biofuels, the materials sector is being left out.
Braskem therefore urges EU regulators to include concrete, bio-based content targets for plastics, alongside recycled content mandates, in the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation. Such targets should be compliant with dedicated sustainability criteria and demonstrate a reduced carbon footprint considering their carbon storage potential, compared with fossil-based equivalent products. “The inclusion of bio-based content targets in addition to recycled content targets in the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation would send a clear signal to the market and consumers and further reduce the dependence on fossil-based plastics for packaging,” said Marco Jansen, Director for Biopolymers and Sustainability Europe and Asia.