European Parliament proposes ban on plastic waste exports to developing countries
The European Parliament has given its backing to a new law that would ban exports of plastic waste to non-OECD countries and phase out the export of plastic waste to OECD countries within 4 years. The EU expects this move to boost the EU circular economy, resource efficiency and zero pollution goals. The proposal argues for the prohibition of shipments within the EU of all wastes destined for disposal, except if authorised in what it describes as “limited and well-justified cases”. According to the adopted text, the Commission would develop uniform criteria for the classification of waste with the aim of ensuring that the rules are not circumvented by clearly distinguishing, for example, between used goods and waste.
LEAK: EU to slap penalties on companies making false green claims
EU Member States will be in charge of imposing “dissuasive” penalties on companies making unsubstantiated environmental claims about their products under a draft new EU law. The aim of the proposal, due to be tabled by the European Commission in the coming weeks, is to help consumers make better-informed choices about the products they buy. Whether “green”, “eco” or “environmentally friendly” – almost half (40%) of the environmental claims made about products are “unsubstantiated”, the Commission says in the draft. “Consumers lack reliable information about the sustainability of products and face misleading commercial practices like greenwashing or the lack of transparency and credibility of environmental labels,” the EU executive writes in a preamble to the draft law. “Companies making ‘green claims’ should substantiate these against a standard methodology to assess their impact on the environment,” it adds, referring to the EU’s flagship Green Deal agenda, adopted in 2019. Most importantly, EU countries will be put in charge of ensuring that “those rules are enforced” and introduce “penalties” on offenders that “should be effective, proportionate and dissuasive,” the draft says.
Tea and coffee waste to be composted in the Netherlands as government adopts Green Deal
In the Netherlands, all soft coffee pods and tea bags can now be disposed of in the organic bin along with vegetables, fruits, and other garden waste, as the Dutch government adopts its Green Deal. The deal was formulated at the initiative of the sector association Koffie & Thee Nederland in cooperation with the other companies and parties including Unilever, Simon Lévelt, Dutch Waste Management Association and others. “The sector has worked hard to make coffee pods and tea bags compostable,” says Vivianne Heijnen, state secretary for Infrastructure and Water Management. “As a result, they can now be placed in the green bin, fully in line with the circular objectives of the Netherlands. We want more and cleaner compost, making recycling as easy as possible for consumers.” Rijkswaterstaat, the executive agency of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, revealed that 93% of tea bags and 97% of all coffee pods were compostable in an independent random check of the supermarkets. The Dutch Green Deal states that in recent years, technological advancements and investments have accelerated the industrial-scale use of compostable materials for all or parts of the functional wrapping around coffee and tea.