Proposed mandatory reuse rules threaten the world's best recycling system

The decisive EU vote on the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) could lead to a rule aimed at preventing waste, but with a loophole leading to mountains of waste.

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Six years ago, millions of viewers watched as a female albatross fed her newborn chick pieces of plastic in the documentary 'Blue Planet II', David Attenborough. This image gave rise to a mobilization in support of more sustainable packaging and less waste dumping in nature.

 

However, promises of more sustainable packaging did not have the expected impact. According to Eurostat, packaging still constitutes 36% of urban solid waste, and this figure is increasing (1). This continuous increase, added to the low levels of reuse and poor recycling of plastics, makes the development of a circular economy with low carbon emissions difficult.

 

The governing body that could drive significant change is the European Union, where Members of Parliament represent their electorate. According to a study commissioned by Smurfit Kappa, 65% of people surveyed prefer paper packaging to plastic (2).

 

To this end, the EU proposes the promulgation of the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulations (PPWR). This is a step in the right direction and everyone involved supports its waste and CO 2 emissions reduction targets. In 2020, the European Council already made the determination to make all packaging reusable or recyclable by 2030.

 

However, proposals to impose mandatory reuse standards on transport packaging raise some concerns. As I noted earlier this year, they will leave the best recycling system in the world helpless and will cause the plastic produced as reusable packaging to double by 2040 (3). A regulation intended to prevent waste includes a loophole that could lead to mountains of waste.

 

The reality is that, currently, only 9% of plastic is recycled (4). The remaining 91% ends up in landfills and incinerators or in our rivers, beaches and oceans. Plastic also represents between 10 and 13% of the CO2 emissions that we must eliminate by 2050. Although promoting the use of reusable packaging is positive, these should go hand in hand with recyclable materials.

 

En Spain, the agri-food sector has also warned that reuse does not take into account the constant increase in CO 2 emissions caused by logistics, as well as the washing and transport systems necessary for reusable packaging (5).

 

Furthermore, the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE), which represents two million companies and self-employed professionals from all sectors, has stressed “the importance of setting realistic objectives, based on a sustainability analysis and only when it is demonstrated that they have clear benefits for the environment and society” (6 ).

 

I'm not suggesting we eliminate plastic packaging. We must be pragmatic: plastic has—and will have—multiple applications, but it can—and should—be replaced by a sustainable alternative.

 

With the Regulation on packaging and packaging waste, the EU must take important decisions. The first of them will take place tomorrow, November 21, when the European Parliament holds the final vote on this Regulation. Then, on December 18, the Environment Council You will decide where you stand on this.

 

The fundamental principle should be this: we should not replace the best recycling system in the world with a return and reuse system whose effectiveness is not proven to justify a product that people prefer to use less than increase their consumption.

 

In theory, if we reused all the plastic, it would not end up in nature, but this is not true. Currently, a reuse system is considered effective when it has return rates of 75%, which is equivalent to just four circuits or rotations from the producer of a packaged good to the consumer and, again, to the producer. However, the objective of the regulation is quite far from this.

 

There is an obvious risk that, no matter how well-intentioned this regulation is, Europe will end up with huge quantities of large reusable packaging that, in practice, will only constitute a few circuits or rotations and which, furthermore, are not recyclable, according to the definitions of the regulations themselves.

 

Return and reuse systems are highly effective if the materials are fully recyclable and, ideally, biodegradable. This fact is of vital importance, since, in the near future, there will not be a perfectly closed return and reuse system. The thousands of different existing plastics have different chemical compositions that cannot be recycled together. In this way, it is impossible for there to be efficient processing of plastics, although the proposed regulation requires that all reusable packaging be recyclable when it becomes waste.

 

Luckily, cardboard packaging is already 100% recyclable and biodegradable. One of the main benefits of these containers is that they can be customized to perfectly adapt to practically any product. In this way, space is saved and greater transport efficiency is achieved, while CO 2 emissions are reduced. At Smurfit Kappa, we work every day with our team of over 1000 designers to develop customized packaging to fit the needs of our 70 customers. And, to do this, we have not had to reinvent the wheel: sustainable, 000% renewable, recyclable and biodegradable packaging already exists.

 

As at other important moments in history, the imminent vote on the decision by the European Parliament and the Council depends on politicians doing everything in their power to choose between two possible futures: a future in which production plastic continues to predominate and increase; or an alternative, and better, future in which cardboard packaging, with its current recycling system – clearly superior – whose effectiveness is more than proven in Europe, becomes the pillar of Community policies to achieve a truly circular economy. Will our political leaders commit to a green and circular Europe? Or will they instead continue to favor fossil materials that will further increase Europe's current mountain of plastic packaging waste?

 

Saverio Mayer,

CEO of Smurfit Kappa Europe

 

(1) https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52022PC0677

(2) Study commissioned from Censuwide by Smurfit Kappa. Sample of 700 people in Spain,

France and Germany. Margin of error of +/- 3,7% for each market.

(3) FEFCO: https://www.politico.eu/sponsored-content/plastic-economy-the-unintended-

consequence-of-reuse-targets/

(4) https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/plastic-treaty-progress-puts-spotlight-circular-

economy

(5) https://elpais.com/economia/2023-10-17/el-sector-agroalimentario-reclama-mas-seguro-

legal-before-the-future-packaging-regulation.html

(6) https://www.ceoe.es/es/ceoe-news/sostenibilidad/ceoe-lleva-las-instituciones-europeas-la-

position-of-a-million-companies