EU member states voted today in favour of an update to the implementing decision under the Single Use Plastics Directive, including rules for attributing chemically recycled content, Louhane Jacob, a project manager at the French economy and finance ministry, said at the Petcore Europe conference.
Member states voted by majority in favour of the rules. The draft decision clarifies mass balance rules and the inclusion of chemical recycling, and establishes rules for fuel-exempt mass balance, with no reports yet of significant changes compared with the leaked draft that circulated in early January.
The final text has not yet been published. Minor changes are expected to affect how imported recyclates can count towards recycled content targets. The rules in the leaked draft stated that recycled PET (rPET) produced outside the EU market cannot count towards the 25pc recycled content for PET beverage bottles until after 21 November 2027, when imports from OECD countries will be allowed. Sources indicate that the text voted on today clarifies that all steps of the recycling chain are to take place within the EU until this date.
The European Commission will adopt implementing measures without significant delay, and the implementing act will enter into force 20 days after its publication in the EU's Official Journal.
The response from market participants was mixed. Some support the exclusion of imports from counting towards recycled content targets, hoping this will stabilise and secure the European PET recycling market over the next couple of years, protecting the market from cheaper import volumes from countries with lower collection and fixed costs. Others want a level playing field for EU and non-EU recyclers, with fair competition and access to affordable, high-quality and compliant recycled materials to achieve sustainability targets. The decision's impact may be limited because reporting requirements are on EU member states and not companies, some participants said.
"We are happy, because it is a step needed to maintain circularity in Europe. If this was not approved there would be nothing supporting Europe. Some members and brand owners are not happy but Europe needs a reality check with what is competitiveness. The cost of collection in Europe is so high. There are some countries (outside the EU) that are collecting waste at the cost 10 times lower than the EU. We need to give some time, not forever, for the industry to get balanced," Petcore Europe president Antonello Ciotti said.
The rules will help secure the chemical recycling market in Europe and may stimulate further investment and progress on projects because they are a move towards chemically recycled material counting towards recycled content targets, some market participants said.
"Today is a major step forward for circular plastics because it puts in a clear harmonised mass balance approach for recycled content... this clarity in rules will support investments and further capacity in Europe", Chemical Recycling Europe chairman Valentijn De Neve said.
"The European preference also shows a strong signal that there is support to make this a European competitive market and we look forward to the next steps to use this framework also for the Packaging and Packaging Waste regulation (PPWR)", he said.
Rules for allocating chemically-recycled content by mass balance for the more wide-ranging recycled content requirements in PPWR — due to come into force in 2030 — will need to be confirmed independently. But many in the industry expect those agreed under the SUPD to act as a precedent in the decision process.
But non-governmental organisation Zero Waste Europe (ZWE) was much less supportive. "If the main points remain the same, including the same allocation rules with a fuel-use exemption model, we would not be able to support the text," said Lauriane Veillard, ZWE policy expert on chemicals recycling and plastic-to-fuels.
