Dear members,

Please find below an overview of activities of European Bioplastics throughout July/August 2020.

Regulatory Affairs (WG REGA)

The European Bioplastics’ Working Group Regulatory Affairs (WG REGA) met on 29 July and then again on 26 August (online). Amongst other items covered, the group noted that discussions between the member state Waste Expert Group and DG Environment had been delayed and that the next meeting had been pushed back to 9 September. Further outreach was therefore attempted following direct communication of EUBP’s position to the member states and DG Environment. Unfortunately, despite significant efforts it was not possible to gather support from allied associations in advance of the 9 September meeting.

EUBP submitted an initial response to the Inception Impact Assessment on ‘Legislative proposal on substantiating green claims’ on 29 August – a public consultation will follow.

EUBP also submitted feedback to the IIA on Essential Requirements for preventing packaging waste (submission on 5 August).

The outreach to the European Parliament’s Environment Committee is ongoing in the context of the parliament’s own initiative report on CEAP. Meetings will be arranged with MEPs as soon as possible, and members are encouraged to join discussions with MEPs from their own member states.

A meeting request had also been sent to Director General Jorna regarding the JRC LCA on alternative feedstocks for plastics. No reply has yet been received.

Furthermore, a letter to the new Director General at DG environment Fink Hooijer had been drafted highlighting the ongoing problems with the DG and the necessity of a joint meeting that should be arranged as soon as possible. EUBP also invites Mr Hooijer to join EUBP as guest speaker at its conference in December. Other relevant Commissioners and Director Generals would be copied in for information.

The REGA WG had agreed to organise a task force to tackle the topic of a plastics tax led by Franz Kraus and supported by Katharina Schlegel from BASF and Paolo La Scola from Novamont. The group would hold bi-weekly meetings and would report back to REGA on a monthly basis.

An additional group would be formed to work on the topic of Taxonomy.

Monthly calls with BON Europe were also being arranged to coordinate more frequently on Brussels and member state based political outreach.

EUBP also prepared feedback following Eunomia’s workshop on bioplastics in agriculture on 29 July.

For detailed information on the work of the WG Regulatory Affairs, please contact Joanna Dupont-Inglis (inglis@european-bioplastics.org). The next online meeting will take place on 23 September 2020.

Product Groups

Product Group Bio-based

On 1 July, Task Force 3 (Feedstock) met to discuss its papers on feedstock types for bio-based plastics. The first paper will be on “Sugar as a feedstock for bio-based plastics”. After discussing a draft during the PG Bio-based meeting in June, the group decided to move away from a publication in the Q&A format and instead draft a short, informative paper depicting the different sources of sugar, sustainability aspects and challenges of alternative sources. During the meeting, the group outlined the content of the paper. A draft will be sent around to the group at the beginning of September.

For more information regarding bio-based plastics including sustainability issues and the work of the PG and TFs, please contact Katharina Hinse (hinse@european-bioplastics.org).

Product Group Biodegradables

During August, the paper “Claims on Biodegradability and Compostability” was revised based on the comments of the group. The new version was sent around by the end of August and will be further refined together with the group.

For more information regarding PG Biodegradables and the TF Marine, please contact Katharina Hinse (hinse@european-bioplastics.org).

Working Group Standardisation

No relevant activities took place during July and August.

For more information on standards for bioplastics, current standardisation processes, and certification of bioplastics, please contact Katharina Hinse (hinse@european-bioplastics.org).

Communications

Please find at the following link a selection of relevant media clippings from July/August 2020 (online).

In the beginning of July, EUBP Comms drafted a letter addressing the Communication Department of the German Federal Government. The letter was the response to a blog post on the government’s official webpage. The post informed about a Federal Cabinet decision to implement parts of the legal provisions of the single-us plastics directive. It included misleading and also false information about bioplastics, e.g. the text questioned the biodegradability/compostability of bioplastics in industrial composting facilities. EUBP successfully convinced the editorial team to take out most of the negative text elements and thereby neutralized the text’s general critical tone against bioplastics.    

In July, the comms team also started with the re-edition of the current presentation master. The main aim of the re-edition is to improve the structure of the presentation slides and to modernize the design.  

In August, EUBP Comms contacted US Plastics in order to discuss EUBP’s role during this year’s Bioplastics Week (17 until 21 August) organized by the US association. It was agreed that EUBP supports the digital campaign as event partner. In preparation of the campaign, the members of WG Comms were informed about the program and the opportunities of participation. Comms, together with several member companies, successfully supported the campaign via Twitter (#BioplasticsWeek). EUBP positioned messages and visuals, including the animated video about bioplastics, which were frequently picked up.      

On 29 July and 26 August, EUBP Comms attended the online REGA meeting. The intention of the joint meetings was to further deepen the understanding of the relevant political processes on the EU level and further align the EUBP communication activities with those of the regulatory affairs .

EUBP Comms is currently updating the following documents:

• Fact Sheet: What are bioplastics?

During July/August, EUBP Comms coordinated the responses to several requests by journalists and companies regarding detailed information on different aspects of bioplastics.

For more information or questions concerning the communications activities of EUBP, please contact Oliver Buchholz (buchholz@european-bioplastics.org).

Seedling Logo

In July and August, EUBP received numerous inquiries concerning the use of the Seedling Logo. Most frequently asked questions were on the requirements for certification and if and how the logo could be used on a specific product as well as requests for approval concerning the printing the logo e.g. in publications.

For more information on the Seedling Logo or the Certification Scheme, please contact Katharina Hinse (hinse@european-bioplastics.org).

Events

In response to the on-going Corona pandemic, the European Bioplastics board (EUBP) decided to change this year’s EUBP Conference to a virtual event. The online format includes several new opportunities, especially regarding sponsoring options and new debate formats to discuss bioplastics.

The event will be held from 30 November to 3 December. Coordinated by the EUBP event manager, the EUBP team has started to develop a conference concept that aims at making use of a maximum of opportunities a virtual event provides.

EUBP decided to extend the deadline for the submission of scientific papers until 13 September 2020.

The decisions mentioned above have already been promoted through the EUBP newsletter and our social media channels. While currently developing options to showcase sponsors virtually, at the same time, EUBP is already approaching potential sponsors.

For more information regarding the Conference 2020 as well as becoming a speaker, please contact Hannah Heimann (conference@european-bioplastics.org). 

Projects

PolyBioSkin (Project month: 36 of 38)

https://www.polybioskin.eu/ (BBI-JU)

On July 8, IMT-Mines Alès and EUBP, together with PolyBioSkin’s scientific lead INSTM (University of Pisa), concluded an online training event and presented results of PolyBioSkin technologies and tests for personal care, cosmetics and biomedical products. IMT-Mines Alès gave a first overview on the ecologic and economic impacts of PolyBioSkin products (LCA and LCCA), together with suggestions on how to improve these during the further industrial scale-up and commercialization. All training material presentations can be downloaded on the project’s website. The training session is available on YouTube.

On July 28, after a project period of 38 months, PolyBioSkin ended successfully with a final virtual meeting. The project partners updated each other on the latest developments in biomedical, cosmetic and personal care. This included defining target applications, informing on material selection, prototype development and biodegradation testing to standardisation. It also included the final life cycle assessment.

BIOnTop (Project month: 12 of 48)

https://biontop.eu/ (BBI-JU)

Due to the holidays season, material development in BIOnTop only progressed slowly while active communication work was temporarily put on hold. Nevertheless, plans for further (online) conference participations and presenting BIOnTop’s developments have been proceeding. Besides the EUBP conference in early December, there are two further opportunities to submit project abstracts (SUM 2020/Venice 2020 Symposium, November 18-20).

Partnering with other HORIZON 2020 projects and proposal status

In the context of “BIO-PLASTICS EUROPE”, on 13 August, EUBP teamed up on with one of the project leading scientists, Dr. Jelena Barbir of HAW Hamburg. During the meeting, further cooperation opportunities and a more regular exchange were discussed. The aim was to ensure a stronger benefit for the project team from EUBP’s expertise.

On 30 July, EUBP was informed that two former project proposals had been positively evaluated and are prepared for granting:

The PRESERVE project with a two-years runtime and a budget of nearly 8 million € will develop high performance sustainable bio-based packaging and tailor its end of life for upcycled secondary use. European Bioplastics will support the project’s communication & dissemination (C&D) as well as the monitoring and further development of existing standards.

BIOMAC with a timeframe of 4 years and a budget of 16.7 million is an open innovation test bed that aims at establishing a "European Sustainable Bio-based Nanomaterials Community". The H2020 project brings together 33 partners which will create a network of pilot plants across Europe, establishing a hub for bio-based and nanomaterial platform chemicals. European Bioplastics will serve as Single Point Entry, organizing enquiries of potential customers and coordinating them with the project consortium. In addition, EUBP will be responsible for compliance and the regulatory framework of nanomaterials as well as supporting the project’s C&D.

Concerning future research activities and being involved in different promising consortia in several BBI-JU calls, ranging from network support up to a complete project partnership, once granted, EUBP will be involved in important research and innovation, such as “Demonstrating superior bio-based packaging solutions with minimal environmental damage” (BBI2020.SO3.D4). By the end of August, all proposals were already prepared and ready to be submitted in advance to the deadline on 3 September.

In order to raise further chances for future project cooperations, EUBP took part in an online event from 13 July to 16 July. During the event, EUBP focussed on resource and energy efficient manufacturing technologies and on how bioplastics can play a role in it. Initially planned as part of the Hannover industry fair (in April), the digital event “Technology & Business Cooperation Days 2020” (April 20 to July 16) brought potential business cooperation partners as well as project partners for H2020 projects together.

For more information or requests concerning EUBP’s project involvements, please contact Christian Schulz (schulz@european-bioplastics.org).

Planned activities

WG Regulatory Affairs:

• Further outreach to European Parliament on CEAP INI
• Ongoing coordination with BON Group on all core topics
• High level political outreach in particular to DGs GROW and ENVI on JRC study and on overall negative bias respectively
• Coordination with EUBP comms group to seeking further synergies
• Further outreach and monitoring on SUP Directive Guidelines development
• Preparation for Plastics Tax regulation
• Further monitoring on Taxonomy
• Development of possible political/regulatory sessions at EUBP conference
• Preparation for response to ongoing IIAs and public consultations on substantiating green claims, sustainable products and other topics mentioned above.                               - EPR fees.                                                                                                                           - Biodegradable plastics in a circular economy                                                                     - Biodegradable plastics in agriculture                                                                                 - Biodegradable plastics in the environment

• Recommendations SUPD Guidance: Outreach to waste experts
• Inception Impact Assessment for the revision of the PPWD ERs

Communications:

• Re-edition of PPT presentation master
• WG Comms Call (4 September)

PG Bio-based:

• TF 1: Draft graphics on LCA
• TF 2: Revise Fact Sheet on Energy Recovery
• TF 3: Finalize Paper on Sugar as feedstock for bio-based plastics

PG Biodegradables:

• Finalize guidelines on claims concerning biodegradability and compostability

WG Standardisation:

• Web meeting on EN 13432 on 15 September

Seedling:

• Web meeting of the Advisory Committee Seedling Mark on 4 September.

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