Saverio Mayer, CEO Europe Smurfit Kappa, has released the following statement on the proposed amendments to the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation:
"Imagine you’re in charge of regulating packaging in the European Union. You’re bringing in some new rules to reduce waste and pollution. So far, so good. But then it is revealed that an amendment mandating the reuse of packaging will cause a flood of plastic. That is exactly the opposite of what you’re trying to achieve. Do you vote for it anyway?
The answer is obvious. Yet this is the exact dilemma now facing the EU, as it debates proposed amendments to the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR).
Everyone supports what the EU wants to achieve with this regulation. But recent amendments are counterproductive. They would impose mandatory re-use rules for transport packaging in too general a way. In practice, this decision would penalize recyclable materials, like cardboard, while promoting the plastics industry.
Analysis from trade association FEFCO has found that, instead of being significantly cut, the amount of unnecessary plastic transport packaging being produced will double by 20401. It isn’t possible to recycle plastic without making it more toxic. But that doesn’t mean we should give up and accept that producing mountains more to reuse is a good alternative.
"Instead of being significantly cut, the amount of unnecessary plastic transport packaging being produced will double by 2040."
Our whole business at Smurfit Kappa is built around reducing the environmental impact of packaging on the planet and improving supply chains for billions of people. We use our expertise in innovation to develop sustainable packaging, especially substitutes for plastics. These are renewable, recyclable and biodegradable. We recycle the fibers of our boxes 25 times over their lifespan. At the end, they just return to nature.
"Plastic always remains. It is manufactured from fossil fuels and only 9 percent globally is recycled2.This is a terrible combination. Even the small amount of plastic that is eventually recycled will one day be burned and release CO2, or end up as litter. It does not return to the earth like cardboard".
On the other hand, paper-based products are fully renewable, recyclable, and biodegradable. Cardboard in particular plays an important role in the EU’s transition towards a circular economy.
We have an excellent, high-performance recycling system for cardboard, with a recycling rate above 90 percent, the highest of any packaging material in Europe. Corrugated cardboard packaging has an average recycled content of 89 percent.
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Smurfit Kappa
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