PPWR adopted in the European Parliament

The European Parliament today adopted new measures to make packaging more sustainable and reduce packaging waste in the EU. The regulation, was approved with 476 votes in favour, 129 against and 24 abstentions.
The rules, provisionally agreed on with the Council, include packaging reduction targets (5% by 2030, 10% by 2035 and 15% by 2040) and require EU countries to reduce, in particular, the amount of plastic packaging waste.

“For the first time in an environmental law, the EU is setting targets to reduce packaging, regardless of the material used,” said Rapporteur Frédérique Ries (Renew, BE).

To reduce unnecessary packaging, a maximum empty space ratio of 50% is set for grouped, transport and e-commerce packaging; manufacturers and importers will also have to ensure that the weight and volume of packaging are minimised.
In addition, under the new directive packaging for unprocessed fresh fruit and vegetables, packaging for foods and beverages filled and consumed in cafés and restaurants, individual portions (for e.g. condiments, sauces, creamer, sugar), accommodation miniature packaging for toiletry products and very lightweight plastic carrier bags (below 15 microns) will be banned from 1 January 2030.

The text includes a ban on the use of so called ‘forever chemicals’, i.e., per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances or PFASs, above certain thresholds in food contact packaging - ‘a great victory for the health of European consumers’, said Ries.

The directive moreover seeks to promote reuse and refill options for consumers, with specific 2030 reuse targets for alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages packaging - with the exception of milk, wine, aromatised wine, and spirits -  transport and sales packaging, as well as grouped packaging. A five-year derogation from these requirements may be granted under certain conditions.

Final distributors of beverages and take-away food will have to offer consumers the option of bringing their own container. They will also be required to endeavour to offer 10% of products in a reusable packaging format by 2030.

Under the new rules, all packaging, except for lightweight wood, cork, textile, rubber, ceramic, porcelain and wax, will have to be recyclable by fulfilling strict criteria.
Minimum recycled content targets for plastic packaging and minimum recycling targets by weight of packaging waste have also been set
By 2029, 90% of single use plastic and metal beverage containers up to three litres will have to be collected separately, via deposit-return systems or other solutions that ensure the collection target is met.
“We now call on all industrial sectors, EU countries and consumers to play their part in the fight against excess packaging,” said Ries.

The European Parliament, however, rejected a resolution on the Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2023/2683 aimed at establishing a clear methodology for calculating, verifying and the reporting of data on recycled plastic content in single-use plastic bottles - to the disappointment of environmental groups Zero Waste Europe, ECOS, and the Rethink Plastic alliance -  thus ‘failing to introduce rigorous safeguards in the definition of recycled content and not protecting the recycling industry from unfair imports of recycled plastics in the EU’. Expressing bafflement at the failure to back the resolution, Mathilde Crêpy, head of environmental transparency at Environmental Coalition on Standards, said that ‘the European Parliament has just opened the door for companies to cook the books on plastic for the SUPD and other future European implementing acts on recycled content’.
“This decision will trigger a cascade of misleading green claims on recycled plastics.”
The European Council must formally approve the agreement as well before it can enter into force. Confirmation from the Council is expected later during 2024 with the regulation being implemented in 2026.

Some background
In 2018, packaging generated a turnover of EUR 355 billion in the EU. It is an ever-increasing source of waste, the EU total having increased from 66 million tonnes in 2009 to 84 million tonnes in 2021. Each European generated 188.7 kg of packaging waste in 2021, a figure that is expected to increase to 209 kg in 2030 without additional measures.

As part of the European Green Deal and the new circular economy action plan, the European Commission put forward a revision of the PPWD in November 2022. The initiative's objective is to ensure that all packaging is reusable or recyclable in an economically feasible way by 2030.In adopting this legislation, Parliament is responding to citizens’ expectations to build a circular economy, avoid waste, phase out non-sustainable packaging and tackle the use of single use plastic packaging.