In the past years, consumers, businesses, and legislative bodies have sought to reduce the amount of single-use plastic and packaging waste. While EU figures show a 6% increase in waste generation in a year time (2020-2021), the latest debates observed on 22nd November 2023, during the European Parliament plenary vote for Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), show members’ indecision between prevention and recycling as the top priority action to reduce the environmental impact of packaging.
Let us take a closer look at how the EPR concept, introduced in Europe more than 30 years ago and still evolving, can help companies not only comply with regulation but move further towards building a long-term circular economy balance.
A focus on prevention and reuse
By the end of 2024, EU countries should ensure that producer responsibility schemes are established for all packaging. By 2030, 100% of all packaging is to be recyclable, 20% of beverage containers reused and large-scale distributors (>200m²) will have to devote 10% of their floor space to bulk sales. These are a few of the 3R (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) ambitions set by the European legislation.
European legislation, such as the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive (PPWD), aims at “preventing the production of packaging waste, promoting the reuse, recycling and other forms of recovering of packaging waste, instead of its final disposal” and sets out strong reuse and prevention ambitions in its PPWR proposal.