During the second quarter, EXPRA strengthened its international dialogue on Extended Producer Responsibility, with a particular focus on the role that effective EPR systems can play in improving glass collection and recycling across Europe and beyond.
A key moment was the Close the Glass Loop Annual Event, in Brussels, where EXPRA’s Regulatory & Public Affairs Manager, Monika Romenska, joined the panel discussion “Towards a glass packaging value chain position on the Circular Economy Act.” Together with representatives from FEVE, FERVER, ACR+, Citeo and the wider glass packaging value chain, the discussion explored how the future Circular Economy Act can help unlock better collection, higher-quality recycling and stronger circular material flows for glass packaging.
The event built on a series of Close the Glass Loop policy workshops and offered an important opportunity to exchange views on a joint paper setting out key considerations for improving glass collection and recycling in Europe. For EXPRA, the debate confirmed that a successful Circular Economy Act must look beyond targets alone. It should support the practical systems that make circularity possible: reliable collection, clear responsibilities, stable financing, effective sorting and recycling infrastructure, robust data and meaningful citizen engagement.
EXPRA also used this opportunity to present its key recommendations for the future Circular Economy Act, underlining the need to safeguard the integrity of EPR. Producer responsibility should remain a transparent, producer-led and operational instrument that creates a direct link between packaging design, collection, sorting, recycling and environmental outcomes, rather than becoming a tax mechanism detached from the systems it is intended to improve. You can read the Recommentations here
EXPRA’s contribution focused on the importance of fair and transparent governance, stronger accountability for online sales and marketplaces, effective action against free-riding, fair treatment of all producers including SMEs, and technology- and material-neutral approaches based on environmental performance. These principles are especially relevant for glass, where high-quality collection is essential to preserve the material’s circular potential.
EXPRA also continued this dialogue beyond the EU. At a Close the Glass Loop event in Tirana, Albania the Alliance shared the key principles of effective EPR with Albanian stakeholders and opened an exchange on how producer responsibility could support stronger packaging waste collection and recycling.
Further contributions to a Spanish-language webinar on global EPR trends organised by CANSSAM and the Universitas Foundation, as well as a SWITCH-Asia dialogue on incentives, public participation and political support for recycling, reinforced the same message: EPR works best when clear producer obligations are matched with stable financing, credible governance, enforcement and local operational capacity.
Across these exchanges, EXPRA continued to share experience while recognising that no national EPR system can simply be copied elsewhere. International cooperation is most valuable when it helps partners adapt proven principles to their own legal, economic and operational realities , while keeping effective producer responsibility at the heart of the transition to a circular economy.