The Commission launched on Thursday 11 June a public consultation on the revision of the requirements of the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive (94/62/EC).
This initiative, planned for the second quarter of 2021, aims to address the limited competitiveness of secondary materials from recycled packaging compared to virgin raw materials in terms of quality and availability and to address the increase in packaging waste generation, which reached a record level in 2017 (173 kg/resident).
It also aims to help Member States to achieve the new recycling targets set in the revision of the waste directives in 2018 as part of the EU’s first action plan for the circular economy in a cost-effective way.
The ‘fitness check’ of the directive in 2014 highlighted the need to establish clearer and more specific requirements regarding the composition and reusable and recoverable nature of packaging. The initiative also responds to the plastics strategy’s commitment to ensure that plastic packaging is reusable or recyclable in an economically viable way by 2030 and the European ‘Green Deal’ which extends this commitment to all packaging and provides for additional measures to prevent and reduce over-packaging and packaging waste.
The consultation will close at midnight on 6 August. To access it: https://bit.ly/3dX1lT4 (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)