Jessika Roswall during a confirmation hearing © European Union, 2024 – Source: European Parliament
Today, a joint letter signed by 115 signatories was sent to Commissioner Roswall and Séjourné of the European Commission, making the case on why reopening the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) again would be disastrous for the forests, the environment, companies and regulators. Rumors have been flying that PPWR will face the wave of Omnibus, reopening the legislative file through the Environmental Simplification Package, expected in December.
The Environmental Paper Network is a signatory of this joint letter urging the Commission to uphold what remains of its political and legal commitment towards promoting reusable packaging and decreasing packaging waste.
EPN was – and continues to be – harshly critical of this regulation which, due to such intense lobbying, has lost so much of its initial ambition when it comes to paper packaging waste. As the single-use paper packaging industry successfully lobbied MEPs and got the ears of the Finnish and Italian ministries, the regulation suffered several blows to its impact. Political decision-makers inserted exemptions for paper and cardboard on numerous reuse targets, as well as changed bans to only be applicable to single-use plastic packaging in most cases.
Despite these numerous loopholes, this regulation still sets important, legally binding goals for waste reduction for Member-States and reuse obligations in other sectors. This alone is a factor to argue it shouldn’t be changed. Another is the reason why this revision is being pushed: the new European Parliament political set-up, dominated by the far-right and the conservative-right, has presented a political landscape more hostile to environmental ambition. The fact that those who are pushing for PPWR to be reopened are the same groups seeking to dismantle environmental regulation — as well as the huge corporations and lobbyists who have been relentless in undermining PPWR in every way possible — should be a wake-up call to prevent any revision of this regulation.
As forests languish under the ever-increasing demand for wood and pulp, our network is ready to put up a fight. If PPWR is reopened, everything can be put back on the table and the environmental community will be strong in its advocacy efforts, pursuing more ambition — not less — and making sure the regulation does not get further watered down.
We will be paying attention, and engaging and urging our partners to do the same.