EU adopts text on packaging recycling largely gutted
While Europeans continue to throw away more and more packaging waste with 188.7 kg per capita in 2021 - which represents an increase of 11 kg in one year - the recycling rate does not follow the same curve. 68% of waste is recycled, according to figures published by Eurostat. A text on waste reduction in the EU has been adopted, but much of it has been emptied.
Camemberts on sale in Ville d'Avray, November 21, 2023. AP - Christophe Ena
By: RFI Follow
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With our special correspondent in Strasbourg, Romain Lemaresquier
In just a few days, the Camembert boxes had become the unexpected point of tension in an ambitious legislation designed to reduce packaging waste: the European institutions worked on Wednesday 22 November to close the file.
MEPs voted to exclude the famous wooden boxes from recycling obligations in a draft EU law, while Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius said he wanted to "calm passions".
This proposal for legislation from the European Commission set as its first objective a 10% reduction in waste per capita by 2035. A text that was submitted to the vote of MEPs on Wednesday morning and which has been the subject of intense lobbying by the food sector. A text that has been validated, even if its scope has been reduced thanks to numerous amendments.
Amendments to render the law meaningless
Although the European Commission's proposal was adopted by MEPs on Wednesday, the amendments that have been tabled and validated largely deprive it of its substance, granting a number of derogations. A disappointment for Michèle Rivasi, MEP and member of Europe Ecology - The Greens.
« There were three proposals that were complementary. There was prevention, recycling, and reuse. On this, we pay for another lobby: it's McDonald's, it's KFC. They absolutely wanted us not to ban single-use plastics. So, to all these people, the message was to say: 1. It is absolutely necessary to reduce this use of both packaging and single-use plastics. It is necessary to review with consumers their consumption patterns: for example, reduce the volume when you receive a box from Amazon, for example. That it doesn't exceed 40%... Well, we've lost all that. »
Although this text has been emptied of its substance, an amendment on wooden packaging such as boxes of Camembert cheese or oyster baskets has nevertheless been validated. An exception could therefore be granted in the event of positive results from studies to be carried out in the near future.
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