The MP for Penrith and the Border will be in Brussels tomorrow afternoon (March 3) to discuss the proposals alongside environment ministers from across EU member states, Defra has confirmed.
Ahead of the meeting, there has been a warning from a European association involved with packaging and the environment that the Circular Economy measures need to ensure that packaging from the post-consumer waste stream is collected to meet recycling targets.
The association, Europen, whose members include companies such as Unilever and Coca Cola, and compliance schemes including Valpak, argues that a “sectoral policy approach” for packaging is essential.
It warns that commercial waste might be targeted in order to meet targets rather than by going for municipal waste. Europen said: “Targeted measures are necessary to ensure that packaging, including post-consumer packaging, gets collected separately for recycling in those member states where recycling capacities are in place… Although it is easier and cheaper to collect, a focus on industrial, commercial and institutional packaging waste only weakens both Member States’ and industry’s ability to achieve higher recycling and recovery rates.”
In the UK there have been regular calls from local authorities for more support under the UK’s packaging waste system and in the early days of the PRN system in the UK, there was more of a focus on commercial waste. Now some packaging waste operators would argue that municipal waste and recycling collections are important in helping to meet targets and do benefit from the PRN support to different levels in terms of different material types collected.
Extended
In its document, Europen also warns that the whole future of a Circular Economy in Europe could be “fatally undermined” if national extended producer responsibility schemes ended up fragmenting the internal market.
Separately, the carton industry, which is particularly strong on the Continent where more beverage cartons are used than in the UK, has said that strategic alliances between stakeholders and regulators will be needed to make the Circular Economy work.
An event in Brussels last week organised by ACE – the Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment – was co-hosted by Giovanni La Via MEP, the Parliament’s Environment Committee Chair, and Simona Bonafè MEP, the rapporteur on the Circular Economy legislative proposals on waste.
Mr La Via revealed that the report of Environment Committee Rapporteur Simona Bonafè is scheduled for completion by 21 April and the Parliament’s Plenary vote on the Circular Economy report will take place around 7-8 November 2016.
He added that the Parliament expects further Commission proposals by the end of 2016 as foreseen in the Commission’s Action Plan. The Environment Committee Chair highlighted elements which could be introduced including a mandatory product passport and a legally binding indicator for resource efficiency.
Climate change
Also at the event, Daniel Calleja Crespo, Director-General of the European Commission’s DG Environment, emphasised how the Circular Economy Package is a “key contributor” to the priorities of Juncker Commission as well as Europe’s response to the UN climate change agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. The package of measures “looks at the whole cycle and not just at waste”. Indicating a strong level of ambition, Calleja Crespo confirmed that for waste “the aim is to phase out landfilling completely”.
Kristian Hall, President of ACE and Director for Environment at Elopak, called for the introduction of a requirement that Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes ensure effective collection and recycling of all packaging materials and a landfill ban for packaging materials.
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