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Permanent Material Alliance welcomes European Parliament's Ambition on Recyclability
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The Permanent Material Alliance - comprising the Association of European Producers of Steel for Packaging (APEAL), European Aluminium, the European Container Glass Federation (FEVE) and Metal Packaging Europe
The Alliance welcomes the recyclability provisions adopted by the European Parliament’s plenary session today. The vote signals a commitment to more ambition, and this is a significant stride toward advancing the circular economy and positions the European Union as global leader in sustainable practices.
RECYCLABILITY PERFORMANCE GRADES ARE A GREAT STEP FORWARD
“The performance grades, and their strong qualitative recyclability criteria, will foster innovation by rewarding packaging that is designed for recycling whilst also being sufficiently and effectively collected, sorted, and recycled at scale. They are a great step forward to a truly EU Circular Economy,” said Alexis Van Maercke, Secretary General of APEAL.
HIGH QUALITY RECYCLING SHOULD BE AMBITIOUS, FACILITATED BY A ROBUST DEFINITION
“The definition of high-quality recycling is a pre-requisite to encouraging economic operators to enhance recyclability” said Krassimira Kazashka, CEO of Metal Packaging Europe. “We support the introduction of the concept for 'high-quality recycling. However, the European Parliament missed the opportunity to have a more robust definition incentivising materials that can withstand multiple recycling loops without any change to their main material properties, stimulates design for recycling and further boosts effective and efficient recycling.”
SEPARATE COLLECTION IS KEY TO HIGH QUALITY RECYCLING
Maarten Labberton, Director Packaging Group of European Aluminium, commented “High quality recycling of packaging materials highly depends on the availability of efficient separate collection and sorting systems for packaging waste. A timely and ambitious approach which encourages the separate collection of packing waste in all EU Member States is a must and we fully support the separate collection target of 90% endorsed by the European Parliament today”.
ENSURING A FAIR EFFORT SHARING BY ALL MATERIALS TO REDUCE PACKAGING WASTE
“Aluminium, glass and steel are today already preventing waste as our materials are largely collected, sorted and undergo high-quality endless recycling into new loops,” added Adeline Farrelly, Secretary General of FEVE. “We are glad to see that the European Parliament adopted packaging waste reduction targets to mitigate against the risk of substitution of fully circular materials (Permanent Materials) by difficult to recycle packaging materials.”
CALL FOR STRONGER MEASURES AND DEFINITIONS
In conclusion, the Permanent Materials Coalition calls upon the Council of the EU to fortify the PPWR, ensuring it enhances the EU Circular Economy, safeguards the environment, and maximises the retention of resources within the economy. The Alliance remains committed to collaborative efforts that promote sustainable practices and drive the transition to a circular and environmentally conscious future.
As champions in recycling, boasting rates of 73%1, 80.1%2 and 85.5%3for aluminium, glass and steel respectively, permanent materials are united in supporting the objective to make all packaging on the EU market be reusable or recyclable in an economically viable way by 2030. In addition, they emphasize the need for a robust approach to safeguard this and achieve this crucial goal.
ENDS
About the Permanent Materials Alliance
The Permanent Materials Alliance is composed of APEAL, the Association of European Producers of Steel for Packaging, European Aluminium, the European Container Glass Federation (FEVE) and Metal Packaging Europe.
The aluminium, glass and steel sectors are top performers in recycling packaging materials with respective rates of 73%4, 80.1%5 and 85.5%6. As permanent materials, aluminium, glass and steel can be recycled over and over again without losing their key intrinsic properties, thus maintaining circular material loops. A ‘permanent material’ is a material whose inherent properties do not change, regardless of the number of times it goes through a recycling process. It means that once it is produced for the first time and properly collected, sorted and processed at the end of its life, it becomes the raw material for new and endless production loops. Such materials are, and will remain, at the heart of any proven and well-functioning Circular Economy.
Contact details
• European Aluminium - Maarten G. Labberton, Director Packaging Group labberton@european aluminium.be, +32 494 51 58 58
• FEVE - Adeline Farrelly, Secretary General and Vanessa Chesnot, Head of Public Affairs and Product Policy a.farrelly@feve.org, +32 475 93 17 24; v.chesnot@feve.org, +32 475 79 12 33
• Metal Packaging Europe - Krassimira Kazashka CEO and Sarah Cuvellier, Deputy CEO krassi.kazashka@mpe-eu.com +32 2 897 04 90 sarah.cuvellier@mpe-eu.com, +32 2 897 04 91
• APEAL - Alexis Van Maercke, Secretary General and Steve Claus, Sustainability Manager a.vanmaercke@apeal.be, +32 477 81 75 14; s.claus@apeal.be, +32 496 54 14 11
1 Recycling rate for aluminium beverage cans (2020)
2 Collection rate for glass packaging (2021)
3 Recycling rate for all steel packaging segments (2020)
4 Recycling rate for aluminium beverage cans (2020)
5 Collection rate for glass packaging (2021)
6 Recycling rate for all steel packaging segments (2020)