We thank Joan Marc Simon for his analysis of the #PPWR. We are company partly financed by EU funding through the great people at the European Investment Bank (EIB) as well as other public and private funders, and you would think innovation investments and policies would be aligned, wouldn't you ? We are financed to innovate, to make new materials that resolve environmental issues. So our process produces #PHA, a totaly biodegradable polymer, using waste #Co2, that otherwise would contribute to climate change. Yet for packaging, where 40% of plastics are used, the #PPWR effectively restricts the market for these innovative materials. It looks at the future through the lens of the past, as Joan Marc Simon says. Fortunately other sectors such as agriculture, cosmetics, automotive, clothing are moving rapidly ahead to adopt new materials such as we make so we are optimistic. But the #PPWR is a lost opportunity to lay down a ten year vison to transform the use of plastics in packaging from plastics that are virtually unrecyclable, GHG intensive and toxic to benign biobased materials. And we are not alone. All the research and innovation on biobased and biodegradable plastics financed through the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE JU) face the same dilemma. Where is the market here ? Fabiana Fantinel Alessandro Carfagnini David Robert Newman FCIWM European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA) Ghazan Global Dr. Djahangir Talebi, Ekke Van Vliet Helge Haase Joachim Kreysing Hessen Trade & Invest GmbH BMH Beteiligungs-Management Hessen #EENHessen #HesseKapital Infraserv GmbH & Co. Höchst KG Moritz Tettenborn Yunqian Wang Anusriha Shanmugam Christina Vogel Alex Lisiecki
The EU has finally adopted the #PPWR. Most people in the sector are celebrating. I confess that I have mixed feelings 🫣 On the positive side we have secured a landmark European regulation that mandates packaging waste reduction, establishes reuse definitions and targets, boosts recycling and phases out #PFAS from food contact materials. Yet, to comply with the Paris Climate agreement we would need to reduce packaging waste generation by over 75% by 2050. The PPWR’s reduction goal of 15% by 2040 falls short of what is needed. The big step forward of this PPWR revision has been on #recycling. It is a strange feeling to see most of the industry rejoicing in obtaining things that I was myself campaigning for 15 years ago during the previous revisions of the PPWD -and they were fighting tooth and nails-; #DRS, design for recycling criteria, high collection targets, recycled content targets… The PPWR places recycling as the cornerstone of Europe’s packaging sustainability. IMO the big time for recycling was 10 years ago, when the first circular economy strategy was launched. Since then, there has been lots of talking about recycling but relatively little happening. Brands, retailers and waste authorities have been asking people to recycle whilst at the same time refusing to install effective collection systems. Now that we finally have the legal framework which can enable effective recycling, even Elon Musk is claiming that recycling doesn’t work -and that is cheaper to just landfill the waste-. I believe, as I did 15 years ago, that recycling can work and is an essential piece of the puzzle. Yet, despite many tools and obligations favoring recycling, the approved legislation has big loopholes that if left unaddressed can lead, paradoxically, to the destruction of a good amount of the recycling industry in Europe. See for example how plastic recyclers are struggling to compete with recyclate coming from abroad. Like any other EU law, the PPWR is a political compromise of what is possible today. Yet, it is interesting how the EU is producing rules for the present when what legislation should do is set the foundations for what we want the future to bring. This PPWR is a step in the right direction that will help the EU “walk the talk” but falls short in delivering the circularity and/or the carbon neutrality the EU is committed to. The challenge these days is that with the rest of the world running in all directions, the EU’s sleepwalking mode wouldn’t seem to be the best course of action. Yet, sleepwalking is the way the EU seems to move forward in this and other pieces of legislation and only time will tell how much wisdom is in this measured pace. From my side, I guess I will have to wait another 15 years to obtain the prevention and reuse policies that the EU needed today😊 Extended reflection in link 👇