European Parliament adopts its position on the Packaging Regulation (PPWR)

On 24 April 2024 the European Parliament adopted at first reading its position on the regulation on packaging and packaging waste (PPWR). The act is to replace the 1994 Packaging Directive and – as a regulation – apply directly in all Member States, which limits national differences.

What the act contains

The PPWR covers the whole life cycle of packaging. The most important areas are:

• Design for recycling – packaging is to be recyclable, and the rules introduce criteria for differentiated producer fees depending on recyclability.
• Recycled content in plastic packaging (targets for 2030).
• Reuse targets for selected packaging and restrictions on some single-use formats.
• Targets for reducing packaging waste per inhabitant – 5% by 2030, 10% by 2035 and 15% by 2040 relative to 2018.
• Compostability requirements for some packaging, e.g. tea bags, coffee pods and sachets, and stickers on fruit and vegetables.

Why this matters for biogas and composting

For operators of biogas plants and composting plants, the biggest problem is the contamination of the biowaste stream with plastics. Compostable packaging is meant to make it easier to admit it to separate biowaste collection, but its suitability depends on the technology: in short-digestion and composting installations, biodegradable plastics do not always break down in the time available to the installation. The PPWR therefore introduces a requirement of compliance with composting standards, and operators should read it together with the waste acceptance rules in their permits.

Significance for the industry in Poland

In Poland, extended producer responsibility (ROP) for packaging is to be rebuilt and fees differentiated. For municipalities and waste collection companies, this means a greater financial role for producers in the costs of collection and processing. For owners of biogas plants processing municipal biowaste, what matters is whether the quality of separate collection will improve and whether the share of films and other contaminants will fall. Investors planning food depackaging should take into account that recycled and compostable packaging may appear in the same stream.

What next

The text adopted in April 2024 still requires legal-linguistic revision and formal adoption by the Council. After publication in the Official Journal of the EU, the regulation will enter into force, and most provisions will start to apply after a transitional period. Until then, national implementing rules must designate authorities, registers and sanctions, and companies must prepare for new obligations concerning the design and labelling of packaging. Biowaste operators should follow how the compostability standards will be defined.

How to read the targets

The PPWR targets apply at different levels: producers (design, recycled content), distributors and sellers (reuse, return systems) and countries (reducing waste per inhabitant). For the waste industry, this means that demand for recycled material and quality requirements will begin to shape the market for secondary raw materials, and thus influence which packaging ends up in biowaste collection. It is worth following the implementing acts, because they will set out the standards and verification methods.