The current revision of the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive (PPWD), as well as the Waste Framework Directive (WFD) review and the forthcoming framework on bio-based, biodegradable and compostable plastics provide crucial opportunities to fully acknowledge the role of bioplastics in a circular economy.
The Bioplastics Organisation Network (BON) Europe, a collaboration of nine national bioplastics associations from across Europe, has published a joint position to raise some crucial concerns on the current policy developments, and in particular on the diverging measures on bio-based, biodegradable & compostable plastics adopted by different Member States that hamper the free movement of products and undermine the EU’s ambition to lead the transformation towards a more sustainable, climate neutral economy.
The group formulates five concrete policy recommendations for the upcoming revision of the PPWD:
- Ensure that all recycling options, including mechanical, organic, and chemical recycling are available for bio-based, non-biodegradable as well as compostable packaging.
- Recognise industrial composting as a solution to increase collection and recycling of organic waste, hence create criteria for when compostable plastic packaging should be preferred/mandatory.
- Consider bio-based content as equivalent contribution to recycled content targets.
- Ensure harmonised and mandatory labelling for packaging products using acknowledged EU standards, such as the standard for packaging recoverable through industrial composting EN 13432.
- Ensure that the Essential Requirements for Packaging remain material-and technology-neutral.
The BON Europe members especially emphasize the need for coherent rules to ensure access to all recycling options, including mechanical, organic, and chemical recycling; and no hierarchy should be set among the different types of recycling technologies: compostable plastics, bio-based content, and recycled content should all have equal value in the development of t