— By Plasteurope.com correspondent — 

More than 50 organisations representing packaging companies, recyclers, and other industry players have branded the European Commission proposal to recognise state-run producer responsibility organisations (PROs), in the final text of the revised Waste Framework Directive (WFD), as a way of taxing producers and failing to tackle waste management issues.

In a joint statement, the 57 groups, which include Plastics Europe (Brussels; www.plasticseurope.org), Circular Economy for Flexible Packaging (Brussels; www.ceflex.eu) and European Plastics Converters (Brussels; www.plasticsconverters.eu), said the extended producer responsibility (EPR) fees that would be charged by state-owned PROs were “almost always a form of taxation, where the money collected from producers becomes another source of revenue for state budgets, without any guarantee of being used for the purpose of waste management, in line with the polluter pays principle”.

The statement said state-run PROs failed to exercise the core function of a PRO, “which is to fulfil producers’ responsibilities to meet recycling targets on their behalf. Assigning producers’ responsibilities to state-owned operators is a paradox.”

The proposed move would “harm PROs’ effectiveness, worsen transparency, and increase administrative costs [to] the detriment of investments in municipal waste collection, sorting and recycling”.

It went on to add: “At a time where two-thirds of Member States are expected to miss their 2025 packaging recycling targets, there is an urgent need for governments to demonstrate that they are serious about the transition to a circular economy. To ensure their effectiveness, all PROs must meet the minimum requirements set down in Article 8a.3 of the WFD and they must work for or on behalf of producers.”

The group called for a ban on state-run PROs, and the closing of loopholes that allowed exemptions from core EPR rules.

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While the proposed regime has yet to be approved by European legislators – a vote is expected this July, with implementation in 2027 – the targeted revision of the WFD failed to address key structural shortcomings of packaging waste management in Europe, the group argued.

“Undermining separate collection, sorting and recycling will have tangible impacts on the environment, on businesses and consumers,” they said in the joint statement.

“Recycling rates will decrease instead of increasing. Producers will not be put in a position to meet the recyclability at scale obligations mandated by the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, which could lead to potential market bans for certain types of packaging. This will affect the cost and availability of consumer products.”

The European Organisation for Packaging and the Environment (Brussels; www.europen-packaging.eu) argued that the targeted WFD revision “failed to address key structural shortcomings of packaging waste management in Europe.”

The European Commission has been contacted for comment.