Despite the challenging historical and political times we are currently experiencing, EXPRA is still united and fully committed to promoting EPR as the most crucial and widely recognised tool for encouraging more sustainable product design and promoting circularity, especially in light of the enormous workload that is progressing at a rapid pace across Europe.
Internally, we are thrilled to announce that three new members have joined our EXPRA family: Visión 30/30 – Colombia, Swiss Recycling – Switzerland, and The Dansk Emballage Producentansvar (DEP), thus welcoming the 30th organisation to join the Alliance.
Just a few months before the 10th anniversary of EXPRA, We are pleased and proud to welcome these new EPR alliance partners, especially at this delicate time when the European waste legislation is being finalized. At this point, it is essential to define an ambitious but still practical regulatory framework in Europe, with mutual support and joint efforts of PROs to promote real EPR principles and learn from each other’s best practices, while simultaneously emphasizing circularity and climate change.
Externally, the fifth United Nations Environment Assembly ended with the historic passage of a mandate to advance an international treaty on plastics production, the establishment of an intergovernmental panel on chemicals, and a wide range of measures to address chemicals and waste.
Within this global framework, the launch event of the Norwegian Retailers’ Environment Fund (NREF) – UN Environment Programme Partnership on Ending Plastic Pollution through Extended Producer Responsibility was a great success. It was organised as part of the partnership between NREF and UNEP to end plastics through the Extended Producer Responsibility tool. EXPRA was proudly involved in the launch of this fruitful partnership to discuss EPR design and implementation opportunities facing countries, identify synergies and possibilities for international collaboration and provide inspiration for the implementation of this new policy.
Furthermore, the discussion on the Waste Framework Directive (WFD) calls for evidence, the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive (PPWD), and many other topics, particularly those pertaining to plastics and plastic waste, are only a few of the numerous EU dossiers whose work is now progressing. Indeed, according to recent information, the European Commission announced that the publication of the legislative proposal of the PPWD/R draft has been delayed from 20 July to 30 November as a result of the Regulatory Scrutiny Board’s unfavorable view.
With all these upcoming challenges, but also opportunities ahead, we at EXPRA continue with our efforts to ensure an appropriate and functional policy framework for the operation of our PROs, thus enabling and fostering circularity of packaging.
Our members are continuing to improve their performance by integrating cost-effective solutions and implementing best practices, as you can see in the articles below and the updated EXPRA brochure.
We wish you a good and interesting read.
Happy summer reading!