Open the document Efficient waste management is key to the European Commission’s flagship policy of a resource efficient Europe and its vision of a circular bioeconomy. Yet, today, the waste management infrastructure still varies immensely within the EU. In the European Union Waste Framework Directive a waste hierarchy has been defined in five [...]
Open the document The Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste (PPWD) was first issued in 1994. Its main purpose was to increase the recovery rate of packaging waste and to cut disposal (landfilling). Apart from mechanical recycling also biological (organic) recycling was defined, and a specific standard for identifying "packaging recoverable by means [...]
Ecodesign for a circular economy The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation proposed by the European Commission in 2022 seeks to reduce the overall environmental impact of a wide range of products. To be effective, it should not only focus on individual products but also towards increasing collection, sorting, repair, and recirculation systems. 1,039 terawatt [...]
Intergovernmental committee discusses legally binding instrument on plastic pollution During 28 November to 2 December, the EU and its Member States participated in the first Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) meeting which took place in Punta del Este, Uruguay. The aim of the meeting is the development of an international legally binding instrument on plastic [...]
Recently, the discussion about the European Union’s future packaging and packaging waste legislation gathered momentum since a leaked version of the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) became public (October 2022). The bioplastics industry is concerned by the proposal’s ignorance towards the significant role of the bioeconomy and its products, including bio-based and compostable [...]
The Product Environmental Footprint method could become the EU’s guiding approach for environmental impact assessment; to be fit for purpose, it should appraise the carbon footprint of bio-based products. As the European Commission increasingly plans to rely on the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) method as the guiding approach for environmental impact assessment, an accurate [...]
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 [...]
Author: Maria Negut, Head of EU Affairs at European Bioplastics e.V. The long-awaited EC proposal for Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) was finally published on 30 March 2022, building upon the “Ecodesign Directive”, which currently only covers energy-related products. Part of the Sustainable Products Initiative (SPI), the proposal for ecodesign is [...]
In modern agriculture you can find a great number of plastic products that help improving the efficiency and, thus, the yield of the cultivated product. However, due to certain conditions that accompany many agricultural procedures, a not-negligible share of plastic remains in the soil. Especially in areas of intensive agriculture, significant amounts of microplastic [...]
Berlin, 14 December 2021 – Last week the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) published a report assessing the sustainability of agricultural plastic products[1] recommending the replacement of non-biodegradable, conventional polymers with biodegradable, bio-based polymers. “We welcome this recognition of the environmental benefits of these bioplastic products”, commented François de Bie, [...]
