Dear Reader,
Welcome to the spring & summer edition of the EXPRA e-newsletter! The period witnessed many developments both externally and internally, not to mention the still ongoing Covid pandemic, impacting our lives and work and moving our communication to a virtual one already for a second year.
Internally EXPRA members elected new President – Mr Oscar Martin, CEO of Ecoembes and re-elected EXPRA Board of Directors’ members for the mandate 2021-2023.
Externally, the European Commission is working on the revision of the PPWD as well as continuing with the secondary legislation stemming from the Single Use Plastic Directive. Unfortunately, some of the secondary legislation, stemming from the Waste Directives (WFD and PPWD) as the EPR Guidelines has been put on hold, which is to some extent hampering their timely transposition and implementation in all EU MS. Of course, we are closely involved in all consultations, discussions and webinars on these important topics.
With all these challenges but also opportunities we, in EXPRA, continue with our efforts to ensure an adequate policy framework for the functioning of PROs, thus enabling the circularity of packaging.
EPR is attracting more and more attention internationally, as recently over 150 companies committed to a declaration facilitated by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation that EPR is part of their business concept and with Maine being the first US state introducing EPR. That is why we are also evaluating how to continue our successful cooperation with ISWA and PSI by for example organizing of 8 EPR Masterclasses during 2020 and 2021, to disseminate information, know how and best practices on EPR.
Our members are continuing toenhance their performance by mainstreaming cost-effective solutions and implementing best practices, as you can see in the articles below as well as from the updated EXPRA Brochure.
Enjoy your reading!