In November 2022, the EU Commission adopted the revision of EU rules on Packaging and Packaging Waste to reinforce the action plan towards the European Green Deal. Over the past year and a half to date, European Bioplastics (EUBP) and other stakeholders have been working hard to ensure that the Commission’s proposal recognises the significant contribution of the bioeconomy and its products, including bioplastics, towards making the packaging sector more circular and sustainable.
Recently, on 4 March, 2024, a provisional agreement on the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation was finally reached between the Council presidency and the European Parliament. Additionally, mid-March, the Member States gave their stamp of approval to the provisional agreement at a meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper).
While this is a significant milestone, the European Parliament will have to put a final stamp on it in the April plenary session. Afterwards, the legal and translation services will go through the text, leading to its final adoption by the Council, probably in Q4 of 2024.
“The Regulation recognizes biobased and compostable plastics contribution to packaging de-fossilization and waste prevention and calls on the Commission to propose sustainability criteria for biobased plastics and promote their contribution to recycled content targets. The future of packaging should lie first and foremost in sustainable innovation and the transition to biobased plastics. This will have to lead to rethinking the current priority given to the energy use of biomass.” says Roberto Ferrigno, European Bioplastics’s Head of EU Affairs.