When on 3 July 2021, the deadline for the transposition of the Single-Use Plastics Directive arrived, it was clear that most EU Member States were unprepared. Pressured for time, national legislators rushed to take last-minute legislative action in an attempt to meet the EU’s deadline.
The result, say European plastic packaging manufacturers, is ‘a patchwork of packaging laws for the consumers and companies in the EU.’
Numerous member states have been unsuccessful in implementing the mandatory requirements of the directive or in providing for exemptions and other measures. Adopted in a hurry, many of the provisions are unclear and in need of interpretation. The Commission's delay on publishing its guidelines on the scope of the directive - these became available a mere four weeks before the deadline - simply added to the confusion.
The Commission failed to realised how disruptive the impact of the Single-Use Plastics (SUP) Directive would be on businesses and how lengthy national legislative processes can be, according to Alexandre Dangis, EuPC Managing Director.
And because there is so much room for interpretation, ‘unexpected bias’ arise, such as “banning fully recyclable plastics while excluding paper products coated with plastics in contradiction with the directive, and based on existing allowance for contaminants in EPR schemes” said Oliver Van Volden, Expert Packaging and Circular Economy at essenscia PolyMatters.
Essenscia, IK Industrievereinigung Kunststoffverpackungen, and EuPC have been working together for a number of months to evaluate the pace of implementation across the Member States and the consequences of the fragmented packaging laws for consumers and companies in the EU.
"We are very concerned about the trend to break up the harmonised packaging rules in the internal market and to create special national rules, often on plastic packaging. This is dismantling piece by piece the EU's greatest achievement, the single market for the exchange of goods - most of which are packaged in plastic. We call on the Commission to act as guardian of the treaties more strongly and to take more consistent action against such diverging national rules,” said Martin Engelmann of the IK German plastic packaging association.
The associations cite the example of the ban on among others, drinking straws, certain take-away packaging made of EPS and EPS disposable beverage cups, which they say has been implemented by just 11 member states. The marking rules for single-use beverage cups have been implemented in a mere five Member States.
Other points of criticism are the attempts by a number of Member States to introduce even more farr-eaching bans, such as on fruit and vegetable packaging, as well as country specific labelling regulations.
“These divergent national measures can, and in some cases already are, undermining the integrity of the Single Market and thus the basis for prosperity in the EU and an important prerequisite for achieving the ambitious circular economy targets,” warned Alexandre Dangis, EuPC Managing Director.
He added that EuPC remains committed to the timely and directive-compliant implementation of the SUPD - ‘even though we disagree with many of the requirements’.