An important report adopted by the European Commission confirms that, broadly, the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive’s environmental objectives are being met, but concludes that some EU Member States’ reluctance to monitor compliance with the Essential Requirements “represents a major problem” in the Directive’s implementation.
Two independent studies undertaken at the Commission’s request confirm the Directive has largely been correctly implemented and that, in 2002, all Directive-set packaging recovery and recycling targets had been achieved by the (then) 15 Member States.
Produced at the Commission’s behest for the European Council and Parliament, the report emphasises, however, that so far just three Member States – the UK, France and the Czech Republic – have an enforcement mechanism in place for the Essential Requirements. The Commission believes proper enforcement is vital to create a level playing field for packaging and packaged goods in the EU internal market.
Brussels-based Europen (The European Organisation for Packaging and the Environment), says evidence in the studies shows countries monitoring compliance with the Requirements have already achieved or surpassed similar levels of decoupling of growth in packaging use from GDP as those (such as Belgium and Spain) which have “implemented costly and bureaucratic packaging prevention plans”.
While generally welcoming the “measured assessment of the Directive’s environmental, economic, social and internal market aspects”, Europen takes issue with one statement that “although there seems to be some decoupling of packaging waste generation from GDP growth, in almost all Member States the absolute quantity of packaging waste is increasing”.
Ceo Julian Carroll says: “This is potentially misleading, because although packaging consumption is growing, the quantity of packaging waste for disposal is falling. Official Commission figures show packaging waste sent for final disposal fell by nearly 10% between 1997 and 2001 and by nearly 12% between 2001 and 2004 – an overall reduction of over 20%.”