Dear members,

Please find below an overview of the activities of European Bioplastics throughout November and December 2019.

Regulatory Affairs (WG REGA)

European Bioplastics’s Working Group Regulatory Affairs met on 12 November in Brussels, where, among other, two representatives of the composting industry (Sandra Uschnig, Austrian composters; Marco Ricci, Italian composters) joined the meeting as both were accompanying EUBP to a dialogue with DG Environment with regard to the study on ‘Relevance of biodegradable and compostable plastics in a circular economy’ later that day. The meeting was following the rather critical workshop on 22 October, and EUBP got a last opportunity to raise questions about the DG’s approach to the study. Please see below further points on this dossier.

Topics and dossiers coming up next year will comprise:

• Green Deal (umbrella for all other dossiers in the coming 5 years, document 1, document 2):
  • On 11 December, the Commission published its Green Deal – one of the major umbrella guidelines of the new Commission.
  • The Deal contains, amongst others, the publication of a Circular Economy Action plan 2.0 (March 2020) – within this plan, the Commission aims to review the Waste Framework Directive and the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive once more.
  • Furthermore, the Green Deal requires the creation of a framework for bio-based and for biodegradable / compostable plastics.
  • A sore spot is that – even though bioplastics are mentioned – the larger concept of the bioeconomy is only insufficiently represented. This falls back behind latest Council Conclusions on bioeconomy and circular economy, which were beginning to link the two concepts.
• Revision of Essential Requirements for Packaging / Packaging & Packaging Waste Directive:
  • The report of the consultancy should be finalised beginning of 2020. The Commission will then review the report, potentially start an Environmental Impact Assessment, and prepare a legislative proposal to amend the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive (PPWD) by the end of 2020.
  • New insights point to further revisions of the PPWD, e.g. on the topic of over-packaging (potential introduction of a ‘packaging waste reduction target’).
• Guidelines for eco-modulation of EPR fees:
  • The guidance on EPR fee modulation (not legally binding) is envisaged to be finalised in April 2020.
  • New insights suggest that it will be complemented with an Implementing Act (legally binding) in order to harmonise eco-modulation across Member States (the timing of the IA is not clear yet).
• Study on Relevance of biodegradable plastics in a Circular Economy:
  • The final workshop of this initiative took place on 22 October. The consultancy prepared its final report merging the outcome of the two workshops (July and October) at the end of November.
  • The Commission will review the report in December and potentially publish it in the beginning of 2020. .
• JRC project on a methodology for comparative LCA for alternative feedstock in plastics production:
  • With the extension of the project until autumn 2020, we planned to pick up again the work with JRC and DG Grow in mid-November. However, there has been a change in staff – team leader Rana Pant switched to DG Environment as per 1 December 2019. The Head of Unit Luisa Marelli is currently filling in.
  • EUBP will be in touch with Ms Marelli to get an update on task allocation and the status of the next round of public consultation as well as an update on the progress on creating a peer review panel.
• Guidance on the Single-use Plastics Directive
  • This initiative focuses on clarifying several points of the Single-use Plastics Directive (Art 12 of the SUP Directive urges the Commission to provide this guidance by mid-2020) and is supposed to prepare a (non-binding) guidance document by mid-2020.
  • Following the initial stakeholder workshop of 18 October, two more workshops on ‘labelling of SUP’ (29 November) and on ‘exemption of natural – chemically unmodified – polymers’ (13 December) were held. In both workshops EUBP was presented via its Board Member Erwin Lepoudre (Kaneka).
  • On labelling of compostable plastics, this initiative is currently drafting approaches and will present them in the next general stakeholder workshop in March/April 2020.
  • On the topic of natural polymers, EUBP will follow up on the workshop and team up (where feasible) with other associations such as EDANA to clarify which polymers are potentially not covered by the SUP.
• Implementing Act on marking of compostable plastic bags
  • The Implementing Act is – according to latest insights – being postponed due to the mention of ‘the creation of a framework for biodegradable and bio-based plastics’ under the Green Deal.
  • It is however relevant to continue to monitor this task as it might clash with the provision on marking tackled under the SUP guidance initiative – even though not binding, the guidance on compostable SUP products can set the tone for future work on the Implementing Act for biodegradable / compostable bags.
• ECHA initiative on intentionally added microplastics:
  • EUBP reviewed the status of the initiative as the consultation period ended on 20 September. The report at this stage recognises that biodegradable plastics should be exempted and provides well-founded arguments in the Annex to the report.
  • ECHA is currently reviewing the outcome of the consultation. In March, there will be a next step regarding consultation.
  • An opinion will be provided to the Commission around May/June.
  • If the EC agrees to the opinion, it will draft a proposal to amend the annex of REACH (approximately August/September).
  • This proposal then will go through the comitology procedure and then will need to be approved by Parliament and Council.
  • We will continue to monitor this dossier throughout the procedural steps.

Product Groups

Product Group Biobased

On 7 November, Task Force 2 (End-of-life) held a web meeting to discuss the planned activities based on the Product Group’s Working Plan. It was agreed to continue working on the Fact Sheet on mechanical recycling, focussing on compatibility of bio-based plastics with mechanical recycling and on the quality and use of recyclates. A Fact Sheet on chemical/enzymatic recycling is prepared for January 2020, containing a definition of the different technologies and how bioplastics fit into these processes. Both papers will strengthen the idea of closing the loop with bioplastics and reducing plastic waste.

Task Force 1 (Sustainability Evaluation) held its web meeting on 21 November, discussing the current status of the JRC project on LCA of alternative feedstock, the template for calculation of land use for bioplastics production and approaches for simplified communication. Regarding the latter, the group agreed to work on “simple” graphics to illustrate challenges of LCA.

Task Force 1 will hold a web meeting in early January.

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

The Chairs of the Product Group together with the convenor held a conference call on 5 November to prioritize its activities that were laid down in the Working Plan.

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

Working Group Standardisation

On 14 November, EUBP attended a web meeting of CEN/TC 261/SC4/WG 2, which works on prEN 17428 Packaging – Determination of the degree of disintegration under simulated home composting conditions.

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 November/December 2019 (pdf).

Between 5 and 7 November, EUBP Comms, together with the WG Comms Chair, developed and published a set of Twitter messages (example 1, example 2) to respond to a critical study on plastics (Plastics Atlas 2019) published by the German Heinrich-Boell-Foundation.

On 14 November, EUBP Comms attended the seminar “Sustainability of food packaging” organized by Eurofins and gave a presentation on the topic “Bioplastics in packaging: an important step towards circular economy”. The event focussed on Eurofins clients from the packaging industry.

On 4 November, EUBP Comms was also approached by French Le Plastilien for an interview with EUBP Chairman, François de Bie. In coordination with the Chairman, EUBP Comms prepared the responses. Besides general questions on the EUBP and its mission, the questions also focussed on challenges as well as on growth sectors of the bioplastics industry. The publication is scheduled for the end of December. Le Plastilien is the association magazine of Allizé-Plasturgie, a French cross-regional industry association focussing on plastics and composites.

Throughout November, Comms continued promoting the EUBP conference by sending a blog post and a set of tweets (example 1, example 2) as well as by following up on the agreed cooperations with a number of media outlets.

Between 2 and 4 December, Comms accompanied the EUBP conference with a broad set of communication activities, especially on Twitter and via press releases (board election, market data 2019, conference warp up). EUBP Comms invited several journalists from relevant media outlets of which 10 attended the conference.

On 9 December, EUBP Comms approached the Spokesperson’s Service of the European Commission in order to respond to a newsletter article, which covered the critical study on the degradability of plastic bags by the University of Plymouth. Comms provided EUBPs perspective on the study sending the existing related information material (EUBP press release and interview with EUBP Chairman published in April/May 2019). The communication was also forwarded to EUBP contacts in the relevant DGs.

In response to the European Green Deal communication published by EC on 11 December, EUBP Comms sent out a corresponding press release emphasizing the crucial role of bioplastics for the implementation process. The press release was developed in coordination with the EUBP Chairman and the WG Comms Chairman and also underlined EUBP’s intention to serve as a strong and constructive dialogue partner throughout the process.

Furthermore, we are currently working on the following position paper:

Bioplastic carrier bags.

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

Events

In November, the preparations for the 14th European Bioplastics Conference that took place on the 4/5 December 2019 at the Titanic Chaussee Hotel in Berlin were finalised. The exhibition hall was sold-out with 42 exhibitors. By the end of November, nearly 400 participants were registered, conference materials were printed, bags were packed and shipped.

On 3/4 December, the event put bioplastics in the spotlight for over 400 senior executives from across the bioplastics value chain, including brands, policy makers, academia and NGO’s by meeting the demand for more sustainable, resource-efficient and functional solutions. The sold-out event once again confirmed its status as the leading business and networking platform in driving the growth and innovations of the global bioplastics industry.

Please save the date for the 15^th European Bioplastics Conference that will take place at the Hotel Savoyen Vienna, in Austria on the 1/2 December 2020.

For more information regarding the EUBP Conference 2019 as well as 2020, please contact Hannah Heimann (conference@european-bioplastics.org).

Projects

PolyBioSkin Meeting (12 - 14 November) in Lyon

Half a year before the finalization of the project, the PolyBioSkin consortium met in Lausanne in order to update each other on the progress of developing the different prototypes and to discuss the remaining tasks to be fulfilled by the members.

Plastic Leak Project Meeting (26 November) in Lausanne

The final in-person meeting of the consortium partners was organized as a workshop aiming at identifying the steps to be taken to implement and to widen the scope of the findings of the project.

EUBP became a partner in a Horizon 2020 project proposal called “Upcycling Bio Plastics of food and drinks packaging”. It will be clear in spring 2020 whether the proposal will be accepted for the next stage.

Planned activities

WG Regulatory Affairs:

• Final input to Eunomia study on ‘Relevance of biodegradable plastics in a Circular Economy’, preparation of workshop on 22 October
• Preparation of position with TF SUPSPEC as input for workshop on SUP Directive on 18 October
• Liaison with ACE and Europen in preparation for workshop on Essential Requirements on 15 October
• Revise discussion paper on feedstock for bioplastics;
• Start planning next EP event on standards and labelling for end of November 2019

Communications:

• Further improvement of coms network and development of knowledge on bioplastics
• Compilation of long-version (4-pager) of new market data 2019
• Update of further EUBP documents (fact sheets, position papers etc.) including market data
• Preparation of presentation at 7th International Seminar on Biopolymers and Sustainable Composites (4/5 March)

PG Biobased:

• TF 3: Web meeting beginning of January
• TF 1: Discussing graphics for simplified communication approaches
• TF 2: Finalization of Fact Sheet on Mechanical Recycling and Preparation of Fact Sheet on Chemical / Enzymatic Recycling

PG Biodegradables:

• Prepare extended paper on positive examples of biodegradable products
• Finalize illustrated paper on “best cases” composting plants in Europe

WG Standardisation:

• Web Meeting on 7 January 2020 on intentionally added micro plastics

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