Algae represent a largely untapped resource in Europe The European Commission is preparing a comprehensive, cross-sectorial EU algae initiative, aimed at increasing the sustainable production, consumption, and use of algae-based products. Because of its small carbon and environmental footprint, the increased use of algae will help achieve the objectives of the European Green Deal. [...]
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 [...]
This year has already seen quite an impressive number of studies, reports, and additional publications related to bioplastics that were published by the European Commission (EC). Most of them contribute to the development of a framework for bioplastics included in the EC’s Circular Economy Action Plan. For the bioplastics industry, a clear framework is [...]
As for many other industries, also for bioplastics 2020 had been an exceptional year. Thus, its industry representatives were eager to come together to analyse the last twelve months and discuss about future market opportunities and challenges. Being the leading business forum for bioplastics, the annual European Bioplastics (EUBP) Conference, which took place from [...]
Berlin, 7 December 2020 – The 15th European Bioplastics (EUBP) Conference took place from 30 November to 3 December. Once again, having changed to a virtual format this year, the conference continued its success story as the leading business and networking platform for the global bioplastics industry. Online, EUBP welcomed over 350 participants from [...]
The European Commission (EC) is currently revising the Essential Requirements for Packaging as part of the amendment of the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive (PPWD). They relate to the manufacturing and composition of packaging, its reusable and recoverable nature as well as to the minimization of hazardous materials. These requirements, and the associated [...]
In the course of implementing the European Strategy for Plastics, so far, the European Commission (EC) initiated a remarkable number of research studies. The recently published study on the ‘Relevance of biodegradable and compostable plastic products in a circular economy’ ranks amongst the most important ones for the bioplastics industry. It aims at contributing [...]
Almost a year has passed since the European Parliament and the European Council adopted the Single-use Plastics Directive (SUPD) in summer 2019. In order to comply with the SUPD, Member States (MS) have two years to bring into force the necessary laws, regulations and administrative provisions. Now, with the deadline ending on 3 July [...]
Covid-19 is said to have caused the greatest crisis after WW II, having a massive impact not only on European citizens and businesses, but on the people around the entire globe. In the European Union (EU) Member States have individually taken security measures to protect their citizens. These measures also focus on the exchange [...]
In 2019, there was a strong, quite single-minded push against plastics in general from many civil society organisations as well as from major players in the media, and politics predominantly switched to this opinion. Long before the Covid-19 outbreak, industry associations expressed great reservations as to whether the restrictions included in the Single-use Plastics [...]
