Soil is an essential non-renewable resource that plays a central role in our lives by providing healthy foods and sustainable materials for a growing world population. In order to specify the conditions for a healthy soil and soil restoration, the European Commission (EC) is currently developing a new EU law on soil health. European [...]
The current revision of the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive (PPWD), as well as the Waste Framework Directive (WFD) review and the forthcoming framework on bio-based, biodegradable and compostable plastics provide crucial opportunities to fully acknowledge the role of bioplastics in a circular economy. The Bioplastics Organisation Network (BON) Europe, a collaboration of [...]
In its efforts to tackle the challenges related to waste, overpackaging, and sustainable production, the European Commission not only introduces additional regulations, such as the Single-use Plastics Directive, but also focuses on revising existing legislation. A milestone in the EU’s approach to respond to the environmental challenges we are facing is the revision of [...]
In order to achieve the ambitious goals of the European Green Deal, respectively the Circular Economy Action Plan, the European Commission already initiated a significant number of regulatory processes. To improve Europe’s waste management in line with the waste hierarchy and the implementation of the polluter principle, the Commission had initiated a Call for [...]
Constance Ißbrücker, Head of Environmental Affairs at European Bioplastics e.V. Life cycle assessment (LCA) has evolved to be the preferred tool to assess the environmental sustainability of certain products and materials. Recently it has also been used with great enthusiasm to compare bio-based with fossil-based plastics. It seems to be an easy instrument to draw [...]
On 8 February, the European Parliament adopted its Own Initiative Report on the Circular Economy which recognised the role of bioplastics for the future. Amongst other issues highlighted, the MEPs emphasised the potential role of bio-based and biodegradable and compostable plastics in the circular economy whilst noting that bio-based and/or biodegradable plastics alone will not provide a solution to the environmental concerns related to plastics. [...]
For quite some time now, the European Commission (EC) is putting a special focus on biodegradable and compostable polymers when assessing the general role of bioplastics. This becomes obvious when looking at the number of related EU studies and reports that had been published in 2020. The last publication in this regard was the [...]
