Dear members,

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

Regulatory Affairs (WG REGA)

The European Bioplastics’ Working Group Regulatory Affairs (WG REGA) last met on 13 October. 

The main topic discussed was the launch of the Commissions Roadmap for a Policy Framework Communication on Bio-based and Biodegradable/Compostable plastics. The consultation opened on 29 September and is due to close on 27 October. REGA had already prepared a paper on guiding principles and recommendations for the policy framework. A further paper commenting on the Commission’s study base was being updated, and a 4000 characters response for the main part of the consultation was being prepared highlighting the bias already evident in the roadmap itself. REGA’s input was being gathered, and all documents would be submitted by the deadline. Members were encouraged to submit their own responses, and allied stakeholders and associations were also being encouraged to respond.  

A kick-off call for campaigning on the PPWD would be organised in the coming days together with a small group of volunteers from REGA. EUBP EU Affairs was already continuing with an outreach to Perm Reps, EP, and MS on the topic. Calls with BON would be organised by the responsible EUBP staff. ML would take over as coordinator of BON when KH takes maternity leave towards the end of 2021. 

Members agreed that face-to-face meetings should resume either on a bi-monthly or quarterly basis. Members were encouraged to let EU Affairs know if they have a meeting room available, since EUBP does not have a meeting space in Brussels. 

For detailed information on the work of the WG Regulatory Affairs, please contact Joanna Dupont-Inglis (inglis@european-bioplastics.org) or Maja Lisac (Lisac@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 14 October. News and updates from national organisations were shared, including a re-born interest in bioplastics in Scandinavia, a round table on bioplastics planned by Belgian BioPackaging, and a planned, government-supported study on circularity of (bio)plastics in the Netherlands. Individual meetings with BON members will be held in the coming weeks. In October, EUBP already met with Holland Bioplastics and Belgian BioPackaging. The aim is to identify intersection points for a closer cooperation between WG REGA and BON members in order to improve the outreach on Member State level. 

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

Product Groups

Product Group Bio-based

The Working Plan for PG Biobased 2021-2023 has been approved and the corresponding Task Forces have been re-confirmed. 

TF 1 has developed a document summarising the position of EUBP on the JRC methodology for LCA of alternative feedstocks for plastics. This short position refers to the comprehensive position paper on LCA for bioplastics developed in 2019 and, therefore, only lists the most important points accompanied by the clear recommendation that the methodology is currently not suitable to compare bio-based and fossil-based plastics. After a short revision phase by WG REGA, the finalised document will be shared with other stakeholders who have already showed interest in signing a common position. 

TF2 and TF 3 have not started yet with the activities of the new working plan. 

The next meeting of PG Bio-based will take place on 25 January 2022, at 9:00am. 

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

PG Biodegradables has finalized the Working Plan 2021-2023, which includes compostable plastics in organic recycling, home composting, and in other waste streams as well as biodegradation in the open environment as focus points.  

A first draft of the position paper on compostable plastics in anaerobic digestion is currently under development and will be introduced and discussed during the next meeting in November. The implementation of the comments into the position on microplastics has been finalised. 

To monitor EU activities regarding the registration of polymers under REACH, a small ad hoc working group with experts from the PG and the WG Standardisation was set up. The group held its second meeting on 15 October and decided to deliver input to CASG-Polymers, the expert group currently in charge of the discussion at EU level. The input was shared with the PG for approval and made available to CASG-members for their meeting on 20 Oct. Possible further activities by the ad-hoc WG depend on the developments at CASG.  

The next meeting of PG Biodegradables is scheduled for 9 November 2021, at 1:00pm 

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

Working Group Standardisation

CEN/TC 261 SC4 WG 2 met on 21 October to discuss the first evaluation of comments submitted for the revision of the EN 13432. Several points still need to be discussed, including anaerobic digestion and the disintegration time. As a first step, the chairs of WG Standardisation are currently discussing how to find a consensus at EUBP level. A meeting is planned for 18 November. 

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 October 2021 (online). 

As preparations of the European Bioplastics Conference entered the final phase, EUBP Comms concentrated most of its efforts on further intensifying the promotion campaign. This included all sectors: owned, earned, and paid media. Comms successfully continued to increase its activity on social media through posts on Twitter and LinkedIn (owned media). Several adds promoting the conference had been published in October, e.g. in EU Recycling or Packaging Journal (paid media). Comms was also able to arrange several interviews with EUBP board members and conference speakers. Among these are an interview with Packaging Europe and a series of interviews with Packaging Insights (earned media). All articles will be published ahead of the conference. The individual invitation of journalists was very successful with a positive response rate of almost 60 percent (19 attending journalists).  

As part of a media agreement with Packaging Journal, EUBP Comms wrote an article on recent changes in EU regulations for plastics, especially plastics packaging. The article focussed on the current revision of the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive and commented on the Single-use Plastics Directive. It was published in the October edition and can read here (page 64 f.). 

In September, Comms continued to update the policy section on the EUBP website. In coordination with EUBP EU Affairs, it was agreed on additional texts on the European Green Deal, the PPWD, taxonomy, and on agriculture. A first text on the Green Deal is planned to be published in November. 

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

Seedling Logo

The ACS will meet again on 3 December 2021, 2:00pm. 

For more information or questions concerning the annual conference and further EUBP events, please contact Denise Valdix (valdix@european-bioplastics.org or conference@european-bioplastics.org).

Events

In October, EUBP Event Management met with the technical provider at the location to discuss last technical aspects of the event. Furthermore, the programme has also been finalized and published, which already showed positive results with regards to registrations for the conference. First conference materials, like roll-ups and other equipment, have been produced.  

EUBP is analyzing the current COVID-19 developments and will adapt its hygiene concept in accordance with local regulations if need be.

For more information or questions concerning the annual conference and further EUBP events, please contact Denise Valdix (valdix@european-bioplastics.org or conference@european-bioplastics.org).

Projects

BIOnTop (Project month: 29 of 48) 

https://biontop.eu/ (BBI-JU)  

As BIOnTop reached half-time, dissemination activities have been increased and a newsletter was sent to project partners and subscribers to give an update on the most recent preliminary results and achievements, and to provide an outlook on the upcoming tasks and deliverables of the project consortium. The newsletter can be viewed on the project website.  

The first two years of the project have already produced promising preliminary findings, including the formulation of developed co-polymers by batch polymerisation and reactive extrusion as well as the upscaling of the selected lactic acid copolymers to the semi-industrial scale. Furthermore, first steps towards a fabrication of the final products were taken by characterizing the PLA-based copolymer compounds and the processing parameters for sheets, films, and filaments.  In the next six months, the project partners are geared towards the processing and production of mono- and multilayer films that will eventually lead to the final packaging solutions for fruits and vegetables as well as dairy and personal care products. The processing of nets as well as the development of textile fibres and fabrics for packaging will also be underway during this period. These developed products will be studied in parallel focussing on their end-of-life properties. 

On 26 October, ENCO and EUBP discussed with BIOnTop’s Advisory Board members Packaging Cluster (Associació Clúster del Packaging, Spain), Flanders' FOOD (a food-related research & innovation platform in Belgium), and the Industrial Solid Waste Association (ISWA; a global waste management network) on the dissemination and mobilisation of stakeholders within BIOnTop. The members were informed about the recent developments within the project as well. 

BIOMAC (Project month: 10 of 48) 

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

EUBP and the University of Thessaloniki finalised all official amendments and contracts for IBB to join the project consortium and take over the project’s Single Entry Point (SEP) tasks, which were originally assigned to EUBP. EUBP will still be involved in standardisation and regulation issues and supports the project’s exploitation and dissemination activities. 

PRESERVE (Project month: 10 of 48) 

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

As the project’s Communication Manager, EUBP is currently preparing a training plan (deliverable 8.3) that sets out a structure for knowledge transfer activities and educational sessions throughout the project. These activities are to ensure that the project’s research data and findings are made available according to the Open Data Management Principles of EU-funded projects. The deliverable is due at the end of 2021 and will be available on the project website. 

EUBP is also taking an active part in exploring cooperation options and cluster activities for the PRESERVE project. In particular, a close cooperation between PRESERVE and two Horizon 2020 sibling projects, UPLIFT and upPE-T, which receive funding from the same call (CE-BIOTEC-09-2020: Upcycling bio-plastics of food and drinks packaging) was successfully established in recent months. 

The three sibling projects aim to share knowledge and efforts to achieve the common objective of reducing plastics waste created by food packaging. One of the first milestones was a joint workshop which was held on 20 October 2021. It focussed on the importance of clustering for innovation and the transition to a circular bioeconomy. A report of the workshop can be found on the EUBP blog.   

BIOSUPPACK (Project month: 5 of 42) 

https://biosuppack.eu/ (BBI-JU) 

The BIOSUPPACK consortium constituted its Technical Committee, which will meet every three months, and held its first meeting on 14 September. This will ensure a regular evaluation of material and packaging development progresses along the project runtime, additionally to the external advisory board. The latter was informed by EUBP about BIOSUPPACK’s kick-off and the planning for the first project year. The advisory board is expected to meet virtually for the first time along with the next consortium meeting in December. In WP7, led by EUBP, a first meeting with AIMPLAS and ENCO was held on 23 September to discuss all further communication & dissemination activities for the year ending. In addition, the project website was officially announced and published. 

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

With the opening of several new calls in the upcoming HORIZON EUROPE framework, EUBP will continue monitoring opportunities and reports on further developments. 

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

Planned activities

Communications: 

• Publication of press release on FAO report planned for end of November 
• EUBP Conference 2021: further implementation of media partnership agreements 

BON Europe: 

• next web meeting on 18 November 
• Update of “European Composting Landscape” 
• Further individual meetings with BON members 

PG Bio-based: 

• Next PG meeting on 25 January 2022  
• Finalize reaction on methodology part of JRC study 
• Start TF Projects 

PG Biodegradables: 

• Next PG meeting on 9 November, at 1:00pm  
• Finalization of position paper on microplastics  
• Preparation of position on anaerobic digestion 

WG Standardisation: 

• Ad hoc Meeting 18 November 2021, 9:00am  
• Monitoring the work of CEN/TC 261 SC 4 WG 2 and the revision of EN 13432 
• Find a position on the role of AD in standardisation 

Seedling Logo: 

• ACS Meeting on 3 December 

Projects and Networks: 

• PRESERVE Del. 8.3 due December 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

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