Dear members,

Please find below an overview of activities carried out by European Bioplastics throughout March 2021.

Regulatory Affairs (WG REGA)

The European Bioplastics’ Working Group Regulatory Affairs (WG REGA) last met 24 March.

EUBP had met with Director Sadauskas from DG Environment and his team. The preparation of the policy framework for bio-based and biodegradable plastics was discussed together with issues relating to the revision of the essential requirements. In a follow up to the meeting, EUBP provided relevant studies and scheduled a more technical meeting with Werner Bosmans and colleagues. It is due to take place on 22 April.

On the topic of the essential requirements, EUBP also provided further information to the Commission. A follow up call with Eunomia was scheduled for 15 April.

EUBP had worked together with EUBA to develop a letter to the Commission on the latest leaked draft delegated act on taxonomy. Amongst the issues raised, was the unimplementable nature of a 27% threshold for GHG emissions reductions in bio-based materials. EUBP had also co-signed a letter together with the Packaging Chain Forum on calling for further resources to be dedicated to the revision of the essential requirements following reports that DG Environment is under resourced on this dossier.

The webinar on compostable plastics within the circular economy had been successfully implemented and was well attended. As a follow up action, EUBP had reached out to Zero Waste Europe to ask whether a joint vision paper on closed loop recycling was possible. There was an agreement for EUBP to prepare a first draft of the paper.

For detailed information on the work of the WG Regulatory Affairs, please contact Joanna Dupont-Inglis (inglis@european-bioplastics.org).

BON Europe

BON Europe (Bioplastics Organisations Network) is an alliance of European Bioplastics and European national bioplastics organisations. The group held its monthly web meeting on 25 March 2021. As usual, BON members reported on relevant updates from their respective EU Member States with a focus on the implementation of the SUP Directive. A further topic was the discussion on microplastics in compost which in several Member States is often brought up when talking about compostable plastics. BON Europe will contribute to updating the “European Composting and Anaerobic Digestion Landscape” available in the Members Area of the EUBP webpage.

For more information regarding BON Europe, please contact Katharina Hinse (hinse@european-bioplastics.org).

Product Groups

Product Group Bio-based

In March, an online survey was set up and shared with EUBP members via the EUBP Newsletter to get more insight into the use of bio-based additives. PG Bio-based will deal with this topic, mainly concerning plasticizers, stabilizers or flame retardants, in a future meeting.

Throughout March, work was continued on the fact sheet on chemical recycling, which is prepared within TF 2 and will be published soon. The next meeting is not scheduled yet but will most likely take place in June 2021.

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

Product Group Biodegradables

No relevant activities took place in March. The next meeting will most likely take place in June 2021.

For more information regarding PG Biodegradables and the TF Marine, please contact Constance Ißbrücker (issbruecker@european-bioplastics.org).

Working Group Standardisation

The WG Standardisation met twice in March, on 17 and 30 March. During the web meetings, the discussion focused on the revision of EN 13432. The group is currently compiling comments and proposed changes to EN 13432, which will be sent to CEN/TC 261 SC 4 WG 2 by end of May. The CEN committee plans to discuss the submitted comments in June. The next meetings of WG Standardisation will take place mid of April.

For more information on standards for bioplastics, current standardisation processes, and certification of bioplastics, please contact Constance Ißbrücker (issbruecker@european-bioplastics.org).

Communications

Please find under the following link a selection of relevant media clippings from March 2021 (online).

On 3 March, EUBP Comms covered the successful EUBP webinar on the role of compostable plastics within a circular economy live on Twitter. As a follow-up activity, Comms posted a comprehensive event report (17 March) which was promoted on social media (Twitter, LinkedIn) and included in the EUBP Newsletter (31 March 2021).

After an interview by Euronews with the EUBP management (16 February), EUBP Comms had to closely follow-up with the responsible journalist on the German translation of the interview that was originally conducted in English. The German transcript of the interview as well as the translation of the film contribution included inaccuracies that would had caused misconceptions over bioplastics. The other translations (Italian, French, Portuguese) were without complaints.

Additionally, EUBP Comms coordinated the responses to several requests by journalists, organizations, and companies regarding detailed information on different aspects of bioplastics or speaking offers for EUBP staff.

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

Seedling Logo

The Advisory Committee of the Seedling Logo met on 5 March 2021 for its regular jour fixe web meeting. Topics were, among others, the possible certification of recycled PLA, a sample preparation for disintegration testing, and items to put on/remove from the positive list of the certification scheme. The next web meeting will take place on 4 June 2021.

For more information on the Seedling Logo or the Certification Scheme, please contact Constance Ißbrücker (issbruecker@european-bioplastics.org).

Projects

BIOnTop (Project month: 23 of 48)

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

On 19 March, EUBP and partner ENCO held a meeting regarding BIOnTop's dissemination activities. Amongst the topics were the improvement of the project’s strategic planning and a simplification of the reporting. During the first half of March, BIOnTop also attended a meeting of BBI-JU project ECOFUNCO (led by our BIOnTop partner INSTM; https://www.ecofunco.eu/). As both projects focus on the functionalisation of bio-based coatings, it was agreed to join forces to apply for a participation at the EU Green Week's virtual exhibition. Planned activities include the presentation of the projects, a sharing of experiences and best practices as well as networking with stakeholders. If the application is accepted, the BIOnTop stand can be visited during the virtual conference on 1-4 June 2021 (https://www.eugreenweek.eu/). On 24 March, BIOnTop published its first newsletter.

BIOMAC (Project month: 3 of 48)

https://www.biomac-oitb.eu/ (Horizon 2020)

During March, all preparations have been made to organize a first regular meeting of WP1 to set up BIOMAC’s ecosystem, tools and procedures for April. Additionally, a webinar held by BIC on 25 March ("Scaling up the bioeconomy with open access pilot and demo facilities") focussed on the potential collaboration opportunities with the BBI-JU project Pilots4U. This will be further assessed by the WP1 partners.

PRESERVE (Project month: 3 of 48)

https://www.preserve-h2020.eu/ (Horizon 2020)

The project’s state-of-the-art report (D2.1) delivered in February was prepared for publication, once officially accepted by the project officer. On 16 March, the steering committee came together virtually to discuss and confirm Ferrero’s participation as new member of the consortium.

As a follow-up of a previous exchange between WP2 and WP3, on 23 March, a WP4 meeting was held by Centexbel to discuss an exchange format between the closely interlinked first three work packages. The WPs deal with material specifications, its production and processing. The general aim is to set up a working routine for the further exchange.

On 25 March, WP8 members had their next regular meeting to discuss the progress and next steps in this work package. Here EUBP will try to make use of internal and other project synergies. This especially includes social media update planning, the collaboration with other EU projects and event planning as well as policy monitoring, concerning PRESERVE food packaging applications.

On 29 March, PRESERVE partners held the first Scientific and Technical Committee Meeting to report and support the upcoming next deliverables on the prototype’s technical specifications in April.

Status of project partnering, other HORIZON 2020 projects, and proposal/grant agreements:

On 16 March, EUBP attended an industry engagement event organized by UKRI Interdisciplinary Centre for Circular Chemical Economy.

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

Planned activities

WG Regulatory Affairs:

• REGA WG meeting, 21 April 2021
• Meeting with DG ENV (Werner Bosmans), 26 April 2021
• Follow up on taxonomy
• Further outreach in the form of meeting requests to Commission and EP on core topics for EUBP
• Preparation for the publication of the JRC study on alternative feedstocks

Communications:

• Preparation of EUBP’s annual report 2020
• Update of EUBP publications with new market data 2020
• Development of an editorial plan for social media
• Development questionnaire EUBP website

BON Europe:

• BON Europe meeting, 29 April 2021
• Further complete and update overview on Member States’ implementation of SUP Directive and other policies
• Prepare update of “Composting Landscape”

PG Bio-based:

• Draft of fact sheet on bio-based content/mass balance
• TF 1: Update position paper on sustainability assessment
• TF 2: finalization fact sheet on chemical recycling, revision fact sheet on energy recovery
• TF 3: finalization paper on sugar as feedstock for bio-based plastics
• Next meeting to be scheduled

PG Biodegradables:

• Position paper on microplastics
• Info collection on biodegradable/compostable plastics in AD
• Next meeting to be scheduled

WG Standardisation:

• Seedling Logo: ACS meeting, 4 June 2021
• Further work on draft EN13432
  

Projects and Networks:

• BIOnTop WP2 meeting, 15 April 2021
  
• PRESERVE WP8 meeting, 29 April 2021

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