To combat the growing mountain of packaging waste in the EU, 100,875 people, 165 NGOs, 295 companies and 34 municipalities who have signed the WeChooseReuse pledge called, on Wednesday 12 October, for an ambitious revision of the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive 94/62/EC, scheduled for 30 November.
The signatures, collected as part of a Break Free From Plastic campaign, were handed over on Wednesday to European Commission Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans and MEP Frédérique Ries (Renew Europe, Belgian), who was the rapporteur for the EU directive 2019/904 ‘Single-use Plastic’ which came into force in July 2021.
WeChooseReuse urges EU and national decision-makers to make reuse the new normal by harmonising packaging types to allow for the uptake of refill and reuse systems such as deposit systems and to restrict the use of certain single-use packaging, especially where reusable packaging is possible.
The revision of the directive will clarify the EU’s ambitions for reuse by setting requirements for packaging design and the reduction of packaging and packaging waste.
The Break Free From Plastic movement advocates for a cap on overall packaging decreasing over time, binding reuse targets, economic incentives and support for reuse and refill systems. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)