BRUSSELS — The European Pet Food Industry Federation (FEDIAF) and more than 120 other packaging industry associations expressed their support in the European Union’s new proposed Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR). However, in a joint letter, the associations expressed great concerns on safeguarding the internal market legal basis.

The new PPWR is an adoption of the 1994 Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive (PPWD), which, according to the letter, addressed the various national rules on managing packaging and packaging waste, as well as their internal market barriers. However, with recent sustainability and packaging advancements, more internal market barriers have popped up.

“…The packaging value chain has witnessed an increase of unilateral and divergent national packaging requirements (e.g., packaging bans, reuse and recycled content targets, labelling requirements),” the letter explained. “These have led to internal market barriers, environmental trade-offs, losses in economies of scale, and diversion of investments and R&D.”

According to the various associations, moving away from internal market legal basis would further exacerbate continued packaging requirements and issues, which would allow for more national packaging legislations and, in turn, undermine the European Union’s objective of creating a singular circular economy.

“Europe needs just one circular economy covering the whole bloc, not 27 miniature ones,” FEDIAF shared.

The associations are encouraging legislators to preserve the internal market legal basis, as it represents the best way to achieve both the environmental and economic objectives of the PPWR, according to the letter.

View the full letter here.