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:  

  1. Ensure that all recycling options, including mechanical, organic, and chemical recycling are available for bio-based, non-biodegradable as well as compostable packaging. 
  2. 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.
  3. Consider bio-based content as equivalent contribution to recycled content targets.
  4. Ensure harmonised and mandatory labelling for packaging products using acknowledged EU standards, such as the standard for packaging recoverable through industrial composting EN 13432.
  5. 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