The Circular Economy Action Plan announced the review of the PPWD, seeking to make all packaging on the EU market is reusable or recyclable in an economically sustainable way by 2030.
The Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive (PPWD) aims at the reduction of the impact of packaging and packaging waste on the environment, as well as to improve the functioning of the internal market. This is put in place though provisions on essential requirements for packaging, prevention, reuse, recovery, and recycling targets.
The Circular Economy Action Plan announced the review of the PPWD, seeking to make all packaging on the EU market is reusable or recyclable in an economically sustainable way by 2030. The revision will:
• update essential requirements to improve packaging design for reuse and high-quality recycling.
• include measures to reduce packaging waste generation, including overpackaging, defining of new waste reduction targets, or making reuse mandatory for some packaging formats.
• consider additional measures, such as crating an enforceable definition of ‘recyclable packaging’; creating packaging registries; introducing recycled content targets for specific packaging formats; tackling e-commerce packaging.
In 2021 an impact Assessment has been assigned to EUNOMIA – the consultant organized 6 Webinars on PPWD review in June:
- Compostable Packaging
- Recyclability
- Over-arching measures
- Recycled Content
- Waste Prevention
- Reuse
Overall, Eunomia consultants are inclined to favour waste reduction and reuse over recycling, which may come in form of new waste generation limits and reuse targets. This position is supported by main NGOs. On the other side, industry, spearheaded by EUROPEN, advocates to move away from setting arbitrary measures such as waste generation limits, calls for a cautious assessment for making reuse mandatory for certain packaging (e.g. transport) and supports the creation of EU standard on effective reuse systems.