September 14, 2020 / By mobanmarket
It turns out reaching an agreement to ban certain single-use plastic products back in 2018 was the easy part.
That decision won’t mean anything until officials complete the process of deciding what should be covered by the ban — a tedious but ultimately crucial undertaking that is now subject to heavy lobbying from industry.
The latest draft of the guidelines that will steer the implementation of the Single-Use Plastic Directive aims to more precisely define just what is covered by the new legislation, according to a copy of the document and accompanying annex obtained by POLITICO.
At stake are huge sums of money with industries frantically trying to ensure they aren’t negatively affected — battling for everything from what kinds of cups would be allowed to asserting that drink and food containers with bigger portions are exempted because they’re reusable.
Green campaigners are worried that the new rulebook leaves huge loopholes and will prompt producers to switch to potentially harmful substitutes, making the ban pointless.
The idea behind the law, which goes into effect next year, is to ban single-use plastic items such as cotton buds, cutlery, plates, straws and so-called expanded polystyrene food containers that foul the Continent’s streets and beaches. Those items are supposed to be easily replaced by more sustainable materials, for example, rigid paper instead of plastic straws.
Other items, including chip bags, wet wipes and cigarette filters, will be subject to an extended producer responsibility scheme, which means producers will be financially responsible when they’re thrown away.
As part of the deal approving the directive, the European Parliament told the Commission to define what actually counts as a single-use plastic item to avoid confusion when the legislation is implemented in each country.
Representatives from the Commission and EU countries met Wednesday to discuss the latest draft of the guidelines, which is expected to be published in the fall after some coronavirus-related delays.
One of the key discussions is how to define the term “plastic.”
Most plastics are made from chemicals derived from crude oil, but polymers can also be made from other raw materials, including natural gas, cellulose and plant-based starches. The current draft seeks to exclude so-called natural polymers from the directive, as long as they have not been chemically modified.
That would mean cellophane — a thin, transparent sheet made of regenerated cellulose — would fall outside the scope of the directive, something that’s riling environmentalists.
“Cellophane has been used in the past to make drinking straws and could be used to make cutlery, so exempting it would leave the door open for a product that is found to be amongst the most common items on European beaches to be left unregulated,” said Justine Maillot, policy coordinator of the Rethink Plastic Alliance.
Under the current guidelines, things like big chips bags would be exempted on the argument that they’re reusable as people don’t eat them in one go — (a dubious assertion for many people who don’t have the willpower to stop eating the snacks until the bag is empty). The same applies to bigger bottles of soft drinks.
“Using criteria such as single-serve or multi-serve would open the door to wide exemptions and companies could be tempted to simply change the labeling of their product to two portions or two servings in order to bypass the directive,” said Maillot.
Industry is also upset that the current draft will effectively ban paper-based items that use polymers as a coating, such as paper cups with a thin plastic lining to retain heat and provide a barrier to liquids.
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“The record speed with which this piece of legislation was approved has made the implementation more difficult,” said a spokesperson from the European Paper Packaging Alliance.
Together with other industry groups, the packaging alliance is urging the EU executive to exempt paper packaging that is combined with plastic elements as “no alternatives to using a minimum amount of polymers” currently exists.
This article has been updated to clarify that the current guidelines apply to containers with larger portions of food.
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