The EU’s Approach on the future of packaging
The following article was written in preparation for an intervention at a convention in Istanbul organised by Kapsam – Public Policy Research Centre and Boǧaziçi University and sponsored by TetraPak on 28-02-2023 (note: due to the earthquake disaster in Türkiye, the convention has been postponed) .
I was asked, in the context of a conference on the very exciting topic “Achieving zero waste. Innovation in food packaging.”, to explain the role the EU plays in tackling the (plastic) packaging problem worldwide, especially the one in plastic food packaging.
I would like to start from clear premises I foster. The EU has taken a leading role in the evolution towards a climate-neutral society. The instruments that are used for this are versatile:
a. Create awareness among the population so that they implement a change in behaviour. This is a long-term task that the EU has been engaged in since the last century.
b. Creating awareness among the industry so that it takes measures on a voluntary basis to reduce its CO2 emissions, but also takes measures to tackle the pollution and health problems caused by their products through innovation. The sectors that have the most impact on both CO2 emissions and are polluting are: fashion & textile, packaging, plastic, eWaste, construction materials, automotive industry, chemistry, agriculture & agro-industry
c. The knowledge centres, which are often subsidized by government money, take the necessary steps to conduct applied research to find solutions in all the above domains.
d. Moreover, the EU has consistently pursued a decentralized policy for several decades. A very large budget has therefore been reserved for decentralized programs such as Interreg and Horizon 2030, in which regional and urban authorities are invited to work together to tackle social and economic problems together.
e. To get specific legislation into the national laws of the 27 member states through European directives, creating a market large enough to get unruly industries to cooperate. And try to influence other countries (trading partners of the EU) to do the same. The latter is part of the so-called “soft power” for which the EU has built a reputation.
The EU context
However, it is important that I first frame the EU before we move on to European eco-politics. Especially for an audience that lives in a country in the pre-entry phase.
As you all know, the EU started with cooperation between 6 countries: the two enemies of the Second World War, France and Germany, Italy and the Benelux countries. Funny in retrospect, and I'm not saying this to upset the ecologists, is that the first forms of coal and steel cooperation have emerged. That was on April 18th 1951. There was then a second step on March 25, 1957, the Treaty of Rome was signed by the same countries. This new treaty established the Euratom and the European Economic Community, and meant further integration at European level. We then arrive at a free trade association. But it quickly becomes clear that the European countries wanted to go much further than that: they wanted to pursue a common policy in several areas. Between 1993 and 2009, the European Union (EU) legally comprised three pillars. The European Communities pillar handled economic, social and environmental policies. It included
• the European Community (EC), the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC, until its expiry in 2002), and the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM).
• The Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) pillar took care of foreign policy and military matters.
• Police and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters (PJCCM) brought together co-operation in the fight against crime. This pillar was originally named Justice and Home Affairs (JHA)
The Environmental Law and thus Climate change was part of pillar 1 and therefore very soon already tackled by the EU.
The perspective of a joint effort on many matters was attractive enough to allow European countries to join. Over the years, the Union was steadily expanded, up to 28 member states, reduced to 27 since the Brexit.
Let us now treat the way Europe tackles climate change.
In 1996 the EU adopted a target of a maximum 2 °C rise in global mean temperature, compared to pre-industrial levels. Since then, European Leaders have reaffirmed this goal several times.
In June 2000 a European Climate Change Programme (ECCP) was launched by the European Commission, with the purpose of avoiding dangerous climate change. The European Union Emissions Trading System for greenhouse gases (EU ETS) is perhaps the most significant contribution of the ECCP, and the EU ETS is the largest greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme in the world.
A Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP) was adopted in 2015 by the EU containing a comprehensive body of legislative and non-legislative actions, which aimed to transition the European economy from a linear to a circular model. The Action Plan mapped out 54 actions, as well as four legislative proposals on waste.
Among those actions, the EU identified plastics as a key priority and committed itself to ‘prepare a strategy addressing the challenges posed by plastics throughout the value chain and taking into account their entire life-cycle’. In 2017, the Commission confirmed it would focus on plastics production and use and work towards the goal of ensuring that all plastic packaging is recyclable by 2030.
By engaging policymakers across different policy areas and levels of governance, as well as various stakeholders, it has aimed to promote a collaborative approach. In this approach the EU believes in smart, innovative and sustainable plastics industry, where design and production fully respects the needs of reuse, repair, and recycling, brings growth and jobs to Europe and helps cut EU's greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on imported fossil fuels.
In December 2019, the Von der Leyen Commission unveiled its European Green Deal, an ambitious plan to transform the EU’s economy into a fair, sustainable, and prosperous one.
The European Green Deal is the result of an evolution in the European Commission's thinking and of a series of policy developments across different areas since 2011.
Based upon that decision, the European Commission proposed a new circular economy action plan in the beginning of 2020. In this framework the EU increased its actions against plastic pollution.
From 3 July 2021, single-use plastic plates, cutlery, straws, balloon sticks and cotton buds cannot be placed on the markets of the EU Member States. In addition, the same measure applies to cups, food and beverage containers made of expanded polystyrene, and all products made of oxo-degradable plastic.
European directives must be transposed into national laws within a certain period of time. Countries often combine different directives in one law. And the speed and will with which national legislative work is done also shows how eager countries are to impose new laws on their industry. Other countries then see which way the wind blows and wait to see which way the more energetic countries are going.
For example, France and Spain have already passed and enacted stringent laws and have thus taken the lead in restricting the use of plastic packaging and single-use plastic. They should therefore experiment with solutions. This also means that France and Spain are attracting quite a few investments from major players to process the various types of plastics and to conduct research into the processing options for plastics that are still difficult to process.
Belgium and even England (note: not the UK) are also preparing laws or bills to curb plastic packaging in supermarkets.
In the Netherlands, on the other hand, which is nevertheless a forerunner in the field of circular economy, only recommendations have been written so far. The press, the critical fourth power, is therefore not tender in the latter country and denounces the procrastination.
Sometimes the ball is also mishit.[1] Plastic bags that were handed out at supermarket checkouts and markets, which became one of the biggest polluters of the oceans and ended up in our bodies as microplastics, were replaced in this century by elegant cotton totes. Neat cotton, which you could use again, and which carried a nice design or logo with which you became a walking advertising board again. A 2018 study by the Ministry of Environment and Food of Denmark found that an organic cotton tote needs to be used 20,000 times to offset its overall impact of production. That equates to daily use for 54 years — for just one bag. oops! Not good again! It's a story of trial and error.
So there is still a lot of work to be done. But the directives create a research and experimentation dynamic in many countries. It speeds up the search for solutions. For example, I can quote a few articles here, from the Netherlands and France. In the Netherlands there is plenty of experimentation ongoing with deposits, washable plastic and edible chips bags. In France plastic containers to transport food from a collective catering kitchen to the various school restaurants are now replaced by stainsteel containers, heavier but unavoidable.[2]
Plastics require a multifaceted approach. On the one hand, there are thousands of types, of which only a small part is already recyclable. On the other hand, there is a petroleum industry that does everything it can to delay or boycott research into alternatives. Of the seven major categories, there are only three that are already successfully reusable or recyclable.
But there is also improvement in sight. Large chemical multinationals such as Dow Chemical have turned to chemical recycling to process difficult plastics back into basic materials. [3]
What about paper bags and cardboard packaging?
Paper and cardboard are also materials that require a long incubation period. Both come from trees that are cut down and processed. Some trees grow quickly, but 10 years for a poplar is still a serious lead time. In addition, paper and cardboard are not moisture-resistant and are often coated with a chemical substance that appears to contain PFAS, an eternal chemical product that is not degradable and carcinogenic. So cardboard containers for Belgian fries are also banned in the Belgian bill.
Typical is Starbucks, who have made an icon of their disposable paper cup of coffee. They too have made the turn and are resolutely going for reusable cups.[4]
Paper recycling is not left to the most advanced countries in recycling in Northern Europe. Paper recycling champion is Italy: its recycling rate reaches 87.3% in the peninsula, compared to an average of 73.9% in the EU. This resulted out of sheer necessity: the country does not have resources for raw materials to meet demand. The largest hi-tech plant in Italy for volumes of paper and plastic was built by Iren close to Parma. The plant 100 thousand tons of paper and cardboard to close the entire system of collection and valorisation of flows in the provinces of Parma, Piacenza and Reggio.[5]
A last warning, published in February of this year in the New York Times:
Plastic waste is more than a local environmental pollutant. It clogs streams. It chokes turtles. It gets caught on a bare branch and blows in the breeze. It stews in landfills.
But it is also a climate pollutant. From the extraction of fossil fuels to make polymers to the transport and disposal of the waste, single-use plastics produced 450 million metric tons of planet-warming greenhouse gases in 2021 alone, according to estimates by Minderoo, a Australian think tank about the matter.[6]
Thank you for your attention
[1] Read also: https://at.tumblr.com/earaercircular/the-cotton-tote-crisis/vsvnvxk39rwe
[2] Read also: https://at.tumblr.com/earaercircular/in-a-years-time-company-canteens-events-and-the/tt1323wcxhn8 &
https://at.tumblr.com/earaercircular/the-collective-catering-restaurants-of/ztpogz6v7nsh
[3] Read also: https://at.tumblr.com/earaercircular/how-the-eu-can-enable-a-circular-economy-in/ghb9zhg1s7ic
[4] Read also: https://at.tumblr.com/earaercircular/starbucks-is-planning-to-phase-out-its-iconic-cups/3kqcjs30ly1y
[5] Read also: https://at.tumblr.com/earaercircular/iren-inaugurates-recap-in-parma-the-largest/82dbdbpriuzq
[6] Read also: https://at.tumblr.com/earaercircular/guess-what-more-plastic-trash/vkyl6i6imikn