Making sense of the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulations

The European Automotive industry fully supports the drive to introduce more sustainable practices and to accelerate the transition to a circular economy and welcomes the European Commission’s initiative to minimise the negative environmental impacts of packaging and packaging waste. The industry is making significant efforts to move to more sustainable packaging solutions and the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) provides an opportunity to strengthen the internal market, however, it is clear that the draft regulation has been developed with consumer packaging in mind and several changes to the European Commission’s proposal are needed to make it more relevant to automotive.

We are pleased to report that a stakeholder meeting will take place with the EU Commission on 13 September and we are currently preparing a list of questions and comments to be put to this meeting with the objective to more fully understand the requirements as they relate to automotive packaging and to possibly tone down several of the requirements in the current legislation.

In parallel, to make sure that our industry is ready in time when the regulations come into force in 2025, the Odette Packaging Expert Group continues to decrypt the current draft legislation to identify the data to be exchanged, the partners involved in the various information flows and any new labelling requirements.

More to come on PPWR after 13 September. Watch this space!