Federación española de Industrias de Alimentación y Bebidas

FIAB POSITION ON PACKAGING AND PACKAGING WASTE REGULATION COMMISSION PROPOSAL INTRODUCTION The Spanish Federation of Food and Drink Industries welcomes the European Commission's proposal for a Regulation on packaging and packaging waste (PPWR). The sector shares the Commission's ambition to continue moving towards packaging sustainability, innovating in eco-design to improve its recyclability, promoting the prevention and reuse of packaging, and increasing the content of recycled material, thus favoring the market for secondary raw materials. Over the years, the food and drink industry has constructively worked for the enshrinement of recyclability and prevention goals in legislation supported by an holistic view in the context of the European Green Deal.

…and prevention goals in legislation supported by an holistic view in the context of the European Green Deal. The sector is committed to the concept of "circular packaging", which meant to be a circular, sustainable and waste-preventing alternative to traditional throwaway models, that could even be a better option than only reuse. However, before imposing obligations that are extremely restrictive, it is necessary to carry out a thorough evaluation that allows analyzing the feasibility of the measures in order to determine which is the best option in each situation, from an environmental, technical, economic and social perspective, without jeopardizing food security and giving companies sufficient time to adapt to possible changes that entail relevant impacts on production processes and high investments.

…sufficient time to adapt to possible changes that entail relevant impacts on production processes and high investments. It is important to provide long term guidance, predictability and a margin of flexibility to companies to be able to comply with the objectives, as well as try to minimize bureaucratic burdens. This regulation should also ensure the integrity and proper functioning of the single market, avoiding the proliferation of national or regional legislation that entails legal uncertainty for businesses. Our guiding principles: • Contribute to the Green Deal objectives and align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals; • Ensure the proper functioning of the EU single market; • Set demanding but realistic goals that can be met and allow sufficient flexibility to allow industry to decide how best to achieve these objectives. Ref.

…that can be met and allow sufficient flexibility to allow industry to decide how best to achieve these objectives. Ref. Ares(2023)2655694 - 14/04/2023 • Be coherent and consistent with other packaging-related legislation, such as the Waste Framework legislation, the Single- Use Plastics Directive and the Food Contact Materials legislation, and make sure food safety remains paramount; • Ensure realistic timelines to enable a smooth transition to the enforcement of new rules throughout the packaging value chain and consider the needs of SMEs, which form 99% of the EU food and drink sector; • Foster effective cooperation among all packaging value chain actors, including packag- ing producers, packaging users, retailers, waste management operators, public authori- ties and consumers; FIAB COMMENTS ON KEY ISSUES RECYCLABILITY (ART.

…waste management operators, public authori- ties and consumers; FIAB COMMENTS ON KEY ISSUES RECYCLABILITY (ART. 6, ANNEX II) In order to facilitate the pathway to more circular and sustainable packaging, it is important to support industry in its commitment to making packaging 100% recyclable. Redesigning packaging and comply with a new system at scale requires time and investments and human resources. If all packaging will need to be compliant with Design for Recycling guidelines, sufficient transition time should be granted. The delegated acts should be published within 12 months from the adoption of the Regulation. Also, the Regulation should grant at least 5 years to comply with the design for recycling. During the time the criteria are developed, the Regulation should clarify that current standards apply to help economic operators comply with the legislation.

…the Regulation should clarify that current standards apply to help economic operators comply with the legislation. To achieve that goal, the following suggestions must be considered: • Sufficient transition time should be granted. • Assume a material, end-of-life pathway and technology neutral approach • Foster a system that helps innovation and safeguard forward-looking policies. • Improve sorting and collection rates (e.g. through infrastructure investment by competent authorities; harmonised minimum requirements for EPR, DRS) • Clear guidelines for recyclability evaluation, considering new and innovative recycling technologies. • Support harmonised labelling (incl. digital solutions) and sorting instructions across all MS. RECYCLED CONTENT (ART.

• Support harmonised labelling (incl. digital solutions) and sorting instructions across all MS. RECYCLED CONTENT (ART. 7) To meet their recycled content obligations laid down in the SUP Directive (and in the future PPWR), producers need to have access to a sufficient amount of affordable, high-quality recycled food-grade plastic. Currently, there are difficulties in ensuring access to food-grade recycled material. Recycled PET is highly demanded by other sectors to incorporate it into lower quality applications, such as textiles or tires, where it will generally no longer be recyclable. To avoid this downcycling, producers – and any other sector that must be subject to mandatory minimum recycled content targets – should have priority access to a fair share of the recycled materials they put on the market.

…content targets – should have priority access to a fair share of the recycled materials they put on the market. In the case of r-PET from beverage bottles, it should be noted that it is demanded by a wide range of food and non-food sectors, due to the numerous attributes of PET (high recyclability, suitability for contact with food, etc.) and is intended for other applications. This means that beverage PET is no longer used for the same purpose, indirectly increasing the need for virgin plastic for the beverage industry. This situation limits beverage packers' access to their recycled materials, when they are currently the only ones subject to the EU's mandatory r-PET use targets (SUP Directive).

…when they are currently the only ones subject to the EU's mandatory r-PET use targets (SUP Directive). On the other hand, the targets lay down in Article 7 apply for the plastic part of the packaging, and after clarification by CE, any part of plastic packaging, no matter how much there is of it, will need to comply with these targets. However, so far, PET is practically the only recycled plastic generally authorized for use in food contact material. It is expected that EFSA will be authorizing new processes for other kind of plastics, but there is no timeline so, currently, the only real market for recycled plastic suitable for contact with food is PET. This provision “for the plastic part in packaging” should only apply when EFSA not only assessed the processes of recycling for other plastics as safe, but authorized it, and these plastics will be available on the market.

…of recycling for other plastics as safe, but authorized it, and these plastics will be available on the market. In addition, the following suggestions must be considered: • Make sure targets consider availability and costs of the recycled material, as well as the quality of infrastructure and technology available. In that sense, targets for 2040 should be reduced. • Targets should apply after 5 years from the adoption of the implementing act laying down the methodology for the calculation. • It is also imperative that targets are set per economic operator as an average of their product portfolio placed on the market, in a manner consistent with the SUP Directive, rather than per unit of packaging. • Unlock (early authorisation of) new and innovative recycling technologies such as chemical recycling, in order to have food-grade recycled material available.

…innovative recycling technologies such as chemical recycling, in order to have food-grade recycled material available. For this, we want to promote this more quickly, taking into account that the creation of "fuel" would not be counted as recycled, as established by Spanish legislation, and support the balance of masses and the credit method. • All operators of the food and beverage sector with mandatory recycled plastic targets should be granted priority access to recycled material from packaging placed on the market (Right-of-first-Refusal), thus avoiding downcycling. • Plastic parts in non-plastic dominated packaging, like paper and metal, should be excluded from the recycled plastics targets. • Packaging for baby food should be given special considerations due to the vulnerable consumer group and stricter specific migration limits than for general food (like for medical devices).

…the vulnerable consumer group and stricter specific migration limits than for general food (like for medical devices). • The implementing acts establishing the methodology for the calculation and verification of the percentage of recycled content and the format for the technical documentation must be published within 12 months, to allow time for packaging to comply with the obligations. • Ensure a high level of food safety and consistency with other EU legislation. • Avoid packaging functionality from being undermined. REUSE AND REFILL (ART. 10, 23-28, 45, ANNEX VI) We consider it essential during this process to insist on the fact that reuse should only be considered when demonstrably beneficial for the environment and cost-efficient.

28 → 12

originalus šaltinis (PDF) ↗