EU studies walk an environment and market tightrope

Archiv – EU government representatives have been presented with draft results of two major studies on the implementation of the bloc’s Directive on Packaging Waste.EU government representatives have been presented with draft results of two major studies on the implementation of the bloc’s Directive on Packaging Waste.
The Ecolas/Pira and Perchards studies tackle some of the longest-standing and most politically charged issues surrounding the EU’s packaging policy, notably prevention and reuse. Both have excited intense stakeholder interest as their conclusions have begun to emerge in recent months. The studies were ordered by the European Commission, which must submit an official report this year on the implementation of the directive following a mini-revision in 2003. This set higher packaging recovery and recycling targets while shelving other issues, such as demands for an EU ’packaging environment indicator’.
The reports appear to lean more towards established industry positions rather than those held by environmentalists. Much will depend on how the European Commission incorporates the consultants’ analysis into its report to the Council of Ministers and European Parliament in the autumn.
The Ecolas/Pira report on the law’s environmental impact concludes that, in general, packaging waste prevention targets have not had a significant effect since packaging consumption has risen with GDP across Europe. The study also states that enforcement of the directive’s essential requirements has been so low that it is not possible to assess environmental benefits. Market surveillance of the requirements should be stepped up, the report concludes. This has been a long-standing plea of Europe’s packaging lobby group Europen.
Furthermore, the study finds that recovery and recycling of packaging among the EU’s established 15 member states has boosted employment and benefited the environment through, for example, reduced greenhouse gas emissions. These benefits have been achieved at a limited cost estimated to be 4% of the packaging industry’s turnover. According to the report, over 90% of this activity would have happened without the directive: only 8% of packaging waste diverted from landfill and only 9% of packaging recycling can be linked to EU legislation, it is claimed.