Dear members,

Dear members,

We’ve given our members mailings a makeover and new design in order to make it easier to read and to find relevant information more quickly. We hope you like the new look!

Please find below an overview of the activities of European Bioplastics throughout August 2017. 

Regulatory Affairs (WG REGA)

As the European Parliament was on summer break during August, EUBP prepared for the coming months and developed ideas for small lobbying events as well as prioritised the focus on the different dossiers once more.

With regard to the trilogues around the waste legislative proposals, EUBP will continue to meet Permanent Representations and will organise an aperitif event together with other associations focussing on the 4^th trilogue on 25 October in order to gain more support for the amendments in the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive (PPWD). The engagement programme with the Council is still on-going. EUBP will meet with countries where the responsible attachés changed over summer break, including Denmark, Finland, and Germany.

On the Plastics Strategy, EUBP has been invited to participate in a panel during the Commission’s stakeholder event on 26 September in Brussels. Furthermore, EUBP prepared a discussion paper focussing on biodegradable plastic applications in the circular economy, which we started distributing. We are organising an on-site visit to two recycling plants near Brussels (mechanic and organic recycling will be covered) for Commission officials at the beginning of October. Together with the European Bioeconomy Alliance (EUBA), EUBP drafted a one-page letter to key stakeholders responsible for the Plastics Strategy calling for the support of bio-based alternative feedstocks within the dossier. The letter shall be shared with the Commission by mid-September. The publication of the final Strategy is envisaged for end of this year.

On the Fertilisers Regulation, EUBP has welcomed the positive mention of biodegradable mulch films in the final EP IMCO committee report. The plenary vote is envisaged between 2-5 October. We plan to send out a reminder mailing concerning our arguments to Members of Parliament and the Council by mid-September. The engagement programme with the Council is on-going and we will meet with representatives from countries such as France and Sweden.

The Oxo-legislation proposal of the Commission is still delayed. EUBP will continue to monitor DG Environment for any news. We are confident that new suggestions will be available together with the publication of the Plastics Strategy.

The Bioeconomy Strategy revision evaluation of DG Research is on-going. A stakeholder conference is planned for 14-16 November. EUBA has prepared key recommendations for a revision over summer. The paper will be finalised soon and is a good addition to EUBP’s arguments on a broader level.

For detailed information on the work of the WG Regulatory Affairs, contact Kristy-Barbara Lange (lange@european-bioplastics.org). 

Product Groups

PG Biodegradables: The PG Biodegradables finalised its work programme for the next two years. The first project to be tackled will be a background paper focussing on the biodegradation process of bioplastics. This document will be based on a paper of the German “Verbund Kompostierbare Produkte” and the first draft has been shared with the group at the beginning of August. On August 9, the Ad hoc Group EN13432 met to discuss recent developments on the standardisation of home compostable carrier bags and the latest comments on the draft EN13432. The ad hoc group will furthermore deliver a position paper on EN13432 as decided in the working plan of the PG Biodegradables. The next meeting of the ad hoc group (web meeting) will be held after the publication of the comments on the standard for home compostable carrier bags.

PG Bio-based: The idea of forming three Task Forces (TF) has been well accepted by the members. Each of the three groups consists of six to seven members and therefore collected sufficient expertise to start work in September. TF 1 “Sustainability evaluation” will be lead by Lars Börger (Neste), TF 2 “End of Life” will be lead by Henri Colens (Braskem) and TF 3 “Chemicals and Intermediates” will be lead by Constance Ißbrücker (EUBP). The results of the TFs will be presented in the regular meetings of the PG Biobased.

PG contact: Constance Ißbrücker (issbruecker@european-bioplastics.org)

Communications

Please find a selection of media clippings from August 2017 here.

In case you missed the August issue of our ‘Bioplastics Bulletin’, you can read it here.

EUBP took part in the Bioplastics Week 2017, organised for the second time by The US Plastics Industry Association (PLASTICS). The Bioplastics week is an online campaign – driven by social media using the hashtag #BioplasticsWeek – created to increase awareness for bioplastics. This year’s Bioplastics Week featured a great many social media posts, infographics, videos, and blog posts about bioplastics. Around 300 tweets, facebook and linkedin posts used the hashtag #bioplasticsweek, reaching an audience of over 330,000 people. More than 115 people participated in the campaign with Italy being the second most active participating country after the US. EUBP shared a series of new infographics on bioplastics during the week, which received a great deal of attention. To see all the great things that have been shared during Bioplastics Week 2017, have a look at the hashtag #bioplasticsweek on twitter.

The WG Communications will meet for a conference call on Tuesday, 12 September, in order to discuss the draft script for the planned bioplastics movie.

If you have any questions concerning the communications activities of EUBP and the WG Comms, please contact Katrin Schwede (schwede@european-bioplastics.org).

Events

12th EUBP Conference 

The 12th European Bioplastics Conference takes place on 28/29 November 2017. We are happy to announce the programme will be published by the end of September. A sneak-peak mailing announcing the preliminary speaker-line-up will be distributed mid-September. A focus of this year’s program will be on new building blocks, alternative feedstock and process routes, as well as EoL outside industrial composting.

Registration is in full swing, and the exhibition space is filling up nicely, so don’t miss the opportunity to showcase your company during the conference and join the group of exhibitors.

Book your sponsorship package! Sponsorship is an integral element of the conference. To find out more about how best to promote your brand at the leading industry event in Europe, simply download the sponsorship options here or get in touch with us directly.

If you would like more about the upcoming 12th European Bioplastics Conference please get in touch with Joanna Wilde (wilde@european-bioplastics.org).

Research Projects

EUBP currently participates in consortia preparing proposal submissions responding to the following Horizon2020 BBI calls:

• The BBI-IA-DEMO topic D.5 concerning Advanced bio-based fibres and materials for large-volume applications
• The BBI-RIA topic R.6 concerning Competitive biodegradable, compostable and/or recyclable bio-based plastics for a sustainable end-of-life phase
• The BBI-CSA topic S.1 seeking to Establish cooperation and partnership with brand owners and consumer representatives to improve the market access of sustainable bio-based products

The deadline for all proposal submissions is 7 September, however interested parties can potentially also join successful project applications in an advisory function. If you would like to find out more about these project calls and proposals and explore a potential co-operation, please don’t hesitate to contact Götz Ahrens on +49 (0)30 2848 2355 or ahrens@european-bioplastics.org.

Planned activities September 2017

• European Commission’s Stakeholder Conference on EU Plastics Strategy on 26 September
• CEP: contact programme with Council, monitoring of trilogues, twitter action to urge Council to support our points; preparation of legislation 1-pager on ‘implementation of mandatory bio-waste collection’
• Application to Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform Board
• Draft input to Microplastics Consultation
• Prepare Council mailings on Fertilisers dossier / waste legislation;
• Conference call WG Communication on 12 September to review draft movie script
• Start of the Task Force Work of PG Biobased
• Preparation of the next draft on the Background Paper on compostable plastics (PG Biodegradables)
• Preparation of first draft on Position Paper on EN13432 (ad hoc Group EN13432)
• Finalisation of all H2020 BBI project proposal submissions

If you have any suggestions regarding the content and/or format of our monthly report, please do not hesitate to share them with us. 

This email is sent to all the contacts of our member companies that we have registered in our database. If you would like to share it with further colleagues, kindly send us an email to members@european-bioplastics.org.

Kind regards, 
Hasso v. Pogrell