Parliament split over how to tackle EU’s packaging waste problem

Lawmakers in the European Parliament are split over the best way to tackle Europe’s growing packaging waste problem, with reuse versus recycling at the heart of the debate.

Members of the Parliament’s environment committee met on Thursday (4 May) to discuss the EU’s draft packaging and packaging waste regulation (PPWR), which aims to reduce waste and ensure all packaging is reusable or recyclable by 2030.

But while all MEPs agree on the need to reduce the environmental impact of packaging, they are divided on how to achieve this.

“We need to move on from this single-use approach, towards a circular approach and using everything that’s available at our disposal – prevention, reuse, recycling and so on,” said Frédérique Ries, a Belgian centrist MEP who is the Parliament’s lead lawmaker on the proposal.

However, she highlighted “different positions defended” by the left-wing Socialists and Democrats (S&D) and the Greens, compared to the right-wing European People’s Party (EPP) and European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR).

Several issues are causing this divide, including whether there should be a reuse target for takeaway food and drinks packaging and the role paper-based packaging will play in substituting plastics.

Scrapping takeaway reuse targets

One of the major changes Ries introduced in her amendments to the regulation was to delete targets for reusable packaging in the takeaway food sector and add a requirement for restaurants and cafés to accept containers brought by customers.

“I think we should modify the obligations for the packaging for food and drink to go because it’s difficult to know how effective these rules will be. We need to look at this more effectively,” said Ries.

The Belgian lawmaker told fellow MEPs that a number of questions about the reuse targets had been raised during her meetings with stakeholders.

“We have this constant desire to strengthen our environmental ambitions on a whole series of points, but we’re also listening to the many sectors who have expressed their opinions in a sector which is very fragile following the crisis,” she explained.

The move was supported by the EPP’s Massimiliano Salini, who cited concerns that reuse targets could lead to a “reverse effect” where the packaging law would increase plastic use instead of reducing waste.

Meanwhile, left-wing lawmakers, including the Green and S&D speakers on the proposal, are supportive of keeping the reuse target tabled by the European Commission.

“Setting up effective reuse systems for takeaway packaging would not just reduce waste, it would also spur positive, sustainable innovation,” said Grace O’Sullivan from the Greens, pointing out that there are already companies working on reuse systems.

”Over 16 billion units of takeaway cups and food containers were consumed in the EU in 2019 and the best case scenario for this single-use packaging is that it is downcycled, which is not ideal [because] most of it ends up in mixed waste,” she added.

The European Commission also voiced concern about removing the reuse targets. The EU executive is “fully aware of the criticism” about reuse but defended the target as “an important contributor” to tackling waste generation, said Aurel Ciobanu-Dordea, director for circular economy at the Commission’s environment department.

“We leave it to the wisdom of the members of this parliamentary committee and more generally to the wisdom of this house to decide what would be the best solution applicable to takeaway food and beverages, but we would urge you to think that just deleting the target will not deliver the necessary environmental ambitions,” he told lawmakers.

Lead EU lawmaker cuts takeaway reuse targets from draft packaging waste law

Targets to boost the reuse of packaging in the restaurant sector have been deleted by the European Parliament lawmaker in charge of negotiating a new law on packaging waste, according to a set of amendments seen by EURACTIV.

Paper versus plastic

The debate on packaging has focused on whether recyclable paper is preferable to plastic alternatives as restaurants and eateries turn to reusable packaging.

MEPs from Sweden and Finland, which are home to a thriving forest-based industry, have resolutely taken the defence of paper in that debate.

“To think that we can remove all fossil plastic at once when we have so much plastic in society – I think it’s very naïve,” said Emma Wiesner, a Swedish MEP from the centrist Renew Europe political group.

According to her, alternatives such as bio-based plastic and paper should be “cherished”.

Meanwhile, EPP lawmaker Peter Liese suggested that paper and plastic should be treated separately because one of the EU’s aims is to reduce plastic use.

“I don’t think it makes sense [for them to be treated the same]. There are people around that plan carbon-neutral paper factories and paper is still a sustainable material,” he said.

However, Renew lawmaker Pascal Canfin warned against over-relying on paper.

“If we replace all plastic with paper where we can – well, there’s going to be a problem with the forests. At a certain point, it’s not just an issue of recyclability, it’s also an issue of volume. We have to reduce [waste] and we’ll start with the useless packaging,” he said.

MEPs have until 10 May to table amendments. The Parliament’s environment committee will then vote on the draft law in September ahead of a plenary vote in October.

[Edited by Frédéric Simon/Nathalie Weatherald]

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