Brussels, 21/04/2011 (Agence Europe) - On 18 April, the European Parliament (EP) environment committee began discussion of the proposal for a regulation banning the use of phosphates in detergents to reduce the amount of phosphates in waste water in Europe (see EUROPE 10250). Bill Newton Dunn (ALDE, UK), rapporteur on the new legislation (amendment of Regulation EC 648/2004) intends to go further than the Commission by extending the ban on phosphates to detergents for automatic dishwashers.
“The Commission proposal is welcome but not ambitious enough. A large and ever-increasing proportion of household laundry detergents are already phosphate-free thanks to the initiative of the industry itself. Therefore, it makes sense not only from an environmental, but also from a market harmonisation perspective, to restrict phosphorus content at the EU level”, Newton Dunn says.
Although less progress has been made so far in formulating reliable low-phosphorus automatic dishwashing detergents, “manufacturers are innovating all the time. Indeed, three EU member states already have set limits on phosphorus content in dishwasher detergents, as well as Norway, and 17 US states. Therefore, I believe a greener approach is indeed possible”, he adds. He believes that the Commission proposal to make a report by the end of 2014 would “just delay progress”. He is persuaded, on the contrary, that setting a date for a ban will require manufacturers to “step up their efforts to produce less polluting formulations”. (A.N./transl.rt)