EU agrees action to cut packaging waste in face of heavy lobbying

Stay informed with free updates

Simply sign up to the EU business regulation myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.

Sachets of ketchup, hotel mini-toiletries and plastic wrapping around fruit and vegetables all face being banned in the EU from 2030 despite a protracted lobbying campaign from European industry.

The rules to cut packaging waste, provisionally agreed by EU lawmakers on Monday night, failed however to outlaw cardboard fast-food cartons and coffee cups or force consumers to use reusable containers. This marked a victory for paper manufacturers who have waged a fierce campaign against the regulation since it was first proposed by the European Commission in 2022.

“With the history of the packaging law and the misinformation campaigns on it, it’s not the best deal we could have dreamt of,” said Seán Flynn of the campaign group Zero Waste Europe.

The original intention of the legislation was to cut the vast amount of waste caused by packaging, which amounts to 80mn tonnes per year in the EU, and make all such material recyclable by 2030.

The law as first envisaged also set targets for reusable packaging in certain sectors, such as for drinks, food and transport pallets. But several of these goals were deleted in the final agreement after heavy resistance from industry and countries such as Finland and Italy, which have strong paper and recycling sectors.

Frédérique Ries, a liberal Belgian MEP who led negotiations on the law, said it was an “historic agreement” because “for the first time in an environmental law, Europe has fixed targets for reducing packaging”.

An official involved in the talks said the deal would also mean the EU had met its international commitments. The bloc is part of a UN effort to agree a treaty by the end of 2024 on cutting plastic waste.

But in the hours after the agreement, some industries were already hitting out at the new rules.

Freshfel, the European fresh produce association, said the fruit and vegetable sector had been unfairly targeted by the European Commission, according to industry publication Fruitnet, and that it would mount a legal challenge against the law.

The Alliance for Sustainable Packaging for Foods said banning single-use plastic for food wrapping would put consumer safety at risk.

Francesca Stevens, secretary-general of the packaging industry body Europen, said the rules could also result in a patchwork of systems in different member states that would fragment the single market.

Officials from the commission are also concerned that a late change to the definition for so-called post-consumer recycled plastic — plastic packaging that has been collected, cleaned and remade into something new — could preclude certain types of recycled plastic imported from third countries and therefore contravene international trade rules, according to two people close to the talks.

The law still requires final approval by the European parliament and member states, which is not guaranteed as politicians play to their voter base ahead of EU-wide elections.

“It could be comfortable majority but in the electoral period you never know what will happen in these six weeks,” said one parliament official involved in the talks.