European Plastics Converters (EuPC) is urging the Members of the European Parliament and representatives of the Member States sitting in the Council to take the time to understand the EU single-use plastics directive proposal and its true implications.
The EuPc believe that the proposal is far from ensuring the desired environmental benefits but instead risks destroying jobs in the EU for many SMEs.
The European Parliament and the Council are called to make up their minds in short time frames, deviating from usual best practices and agreed calendars, says EuPc.
The proposal for a directive on the reduction of single-use plastics has been already criticised for the poor assessment and lack of LCA by the European Commission.
Now according to the EuPc we are seeing various rushed EU legislative steps that also question the time for co-legislators to properly form their own opinions.
Earlier this year, the European Commission published an EU Strategy on Plastics focussed on the need to scientifically assess the best environmental solutions, to provide circular solutions and to increase separate collection and recycling.
European Converters are afraid that much single-use packaging, which is proven to guarantee health, hygiene and safety of use, would be discriminated for allegedly environmental solutions.
This includes paper cups with plastics coating, that do not necessarily perform better than plastic cups from an LCA point of view and present weaker end-of-life disposal and recycling options.
