To understand the importance of harmonized legislation in the European Union (EU) on packaging and packaging waste, it is enough to observe the production and consumption figures of these. According to Eurostat data, in 2021, the EU generated 188.7 kg of packaging waste per inhabitant, 10.8 kg more per person than in 2020, the largest increase in 10 years, and almost 32 kg more than in 2011. In total: 84 million tons of packaging waste, of which 40.3% was paper and cardboard. Plastic represented 19.0%, glass 18.5%, wood 17.1% and metal 4.9%. Furthermore, in 2021, each citizen generated an average of 35.9 kg of plastic packaging waste, of which 14.2 kg was recycled. Compared to 2020, both the generation and recycling of plastic packaging waste increased, by 1.4 kg per capita (+4.0%) and 1.2 kg per capita (+9.5%), respectively.
Packaging is one of the largest consumers of virgin materials (40% of plastics and 50% of paper used in the EU is destined for packaging) and represents 36% of municipal solid waste. Its increasing use, driven by e-commerce and new consumer habits, together with its low percentages of reuse and recycling, hinders the development of a circular economy with low carbon emissions.
New obligations
The increase in packaging has been faster in recent years than that of the gross domestic product, which has triggered CO2 and other types of emissions, as well as the overexploitation of natural resources, the loss of biodiversity and pollution. To put a stop to this uncontrolled and unsustainable consumption, both the EU, with the Regulation on packaging and packaging waste, and Spain, through Royal Decree 1055/2022 on packaging and packaging waste, establish new obligations for all the chain that generates or uses packaging of any type through the concept of expanded producer responsibility, new objectives are set to regulate the quantity and materials of packaging both generated and discarded and are regulated the objectives of reuse, recyclability and reduction of the weight of packaging through specific measures.
Among the main novelties introduced in this royal decree, the producer of the product is defined, who is equated with the packager. The industry in charge of packaging products acquires a new responsibility: financing and organizing the management of packaging waste in which its products are sold. Product producer is understood as those packagers or economic agents dedicated to the import or acquisition of packaged products for placing on the market. It includes the owner of the distribution brand based in Spain, the person responsible for placing the custom-packaged products on the market and the electronic commerce platforms, for products from outside Spain, if an authorized representative has not been designated.
The regulations establish clear objectives for waste prevention and reduction, reuse and recycling. In addition, information obligations are defined; mandatory and optional markings; the deposit, return and return system (SDDR), and the extended producer responsibility (RAP).
The collective systems of extended producer responsibility (SCRAP), as dynamic agents of the new regulations in order to achieve the established objectives, will contribute to ensuring correct traceability of the entire life cycle of the packaging and its waste and, with this, to a more sustainable management on the path towards a circular economy and a climate-neutral continent.
Half a thousand companies
Last November, IMPLICA received authorization from the CCAA of Madrid to operate as SCRAP throughout the national territory, covering single-use containers and reusable containers of all possible types of SDR systems, open and closed. Likewise, the packaging waste codes on which the system will act are all the LER codes of the 15 series. In this way, it guarantees its customers the service from January 1, 2025, at which time the legal responsibility of the companies begins. companies on the management of waste from the commercial and industrial packaging they put on the market.
The granting of this authorization for the development of IMPLICA’s activity marks a historical milestone for SCRAP and is the result of the work carried out during all this time and the trust placed by its members – who currently exceed half a thousand –, therefore which is fully prepared to help all those companies that put containers and packaging on the market to reduce the waste generated and achieve the established objectives of prevention, reuse and recycling.
IMPLICA also introduces the ecomodulation of rates, taking into account not only factors of the characteristics of the producers’ packaging, but also implementing measures to improve the production of packaging waste that favor better recycling and, therefore, a higher quality recycled raw material.
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