The Permanent Material Alliance – composed of the Association of European Producers of Steel for Packaging (APEAL), European Aluminium, the European Container Glass Federation (FEVE) and Metal Packaging Europe, acknowledges the recyclability provisions adopted by the Council of the EU today. However, the Alliance considers it a missed opportunity to showcase high ambition in advancing the circular economy and positioning the European Union as a global leader in sustainable practices.
WATERED-DOWN RECYCLABILITY PERFORMANCE GRADES
Steve Claus, Secretary General of APEAL, expressed regret at the watered-down recyclability performance grades. "Ambitious recyclability performance grades, including strong qualitative recyclability criteria, would have been a great step forward to a truly EU Circular Economy, ensuring that packaging that can be recycled multiple times and can feed a closed material loop scheme is duly recognised at the top of the recycling hierarchy”.
HIGH-QUALITY RECYCLING DEFINITION IS WELCOME BUT NEEDS AMBITION
Krassimira Kazashka, CEO of Metal Packaging Europe, emphasised the importance of defining high-quality recycling as a prerequisite for encouraging economic operators to enhance recyclability. "We welcome the efforts to define high-quality recycling. However, Member States missed the opportunity to adopt an ambitious definition of high-quality recycling that would incentivise materials that can withstand multiple recycling loops without any change to their main material properties."
WHY NOT SEPARATE COLLECTION TARGETS FOR ALL MATERIALS?
Maarten Labberton, Director Packaging Group of European Aluminium, commented “High quality recycling of packaging materials highly depends on the availability of efficient separate collection and sorting systems for packaging waste. We regret that the Council did not support a separate collection target of 90% for all packaging materials”.
NO FAIR EFFORT SHARING BY ALL MATERIALS TO REDUCE PACKAGING WASTE
Adeline Farrelly, Secretary General of FEVE, highlighted that aluminium, glass and steel are today already preventing waste as these materials are largely collected, sorted and undergo high-quality endless recycling into new loops. “We very much regret that Member States acknowledged the risk of material substitution but maintained overall packaging waste reduction targets that will incentivise a shift away from fully circular materials (Permanent Materials) to difficult to recycle packaging materials.”
URGENT CALL FOR A STRONGER RECYCLABILITY FRAMEWORK
In conclusion, the Permanent Materials Alliance calls upon the EU co-legislators to collaborate in raising the recyclability ambitions of the PPWR to truly enhance the EU Circular Economy, safeguard the environment, and maximise the retention of resources within the economy. The Alliance remains committed to collaborative efforts that promote sustainable practices and drive the transition to a circular and environmentally conscious future.
As champions in recycling, boasting rates of 73%[1], 80.1%[2] and 78.5%[3] for aluminium, glass and steel respectively, permanent materials are united in supporting the objective to make all packaging on the EU market reusable or recyclable in an economically viable way by 2030. In addition, they emphasize the need for a robust approach to safeguard this and achieve this crucial goal.
[1] Recycling rate for aluminium beverage cans (2020)
[2] Collection rate for glass packaging (2021)
[3] Recycling rate for all steel packaging segments (2021)