Waste Sweden on the EU’s packaging law: How the requirements can affect Sweden

But on Wednesday, the EU Parliament approved the law during a vote in Strasbourg. The last step before it can finally be clubbed is now an approval by the Council of Ministers. The municipalities’ industry organization in waste management, Avfall Sweden, has followed the issue and belongs to the phalanx that welcomes the law. Tony Clark, CEO of Waste Sweden, says that there are many indications that there is a large majority for the law in the Council of Ministers.

– Anything that makes us increase the recycling rate is good, and this pushes us towards our vision that there should be no waste. It is good that the rules around packaging are harmonized within the EU, as it becomes easier to cooperate across borders and between the private and public sectors, says Tony Clark, CEO of Waste Sweden to Environment & Development.

That is what the law means

The law aims to reduce the amount of packaging waste in our communities. Among other things, the directive contains targets for the reduction of packaging, as well as stricter requirements for producers regarding how packaging should be designed and how much recycled material they should contain.

Certain disposable packaging, such as packaging around fruit, is to be banned according to the proposal. The directive also contains wording about phasing out dangerous substances, such as PFAS, from packaging.

Tony Clark hopes that the directive will increase the demand for reused and recycled materials, which until now has long lagged behind.

– If you look at plastic, for example, virgin plastic is usually cheaper than recycled, which has meant that the demand for recycled and reused material has been weak. With this directive, we hope that demand will increase, among other things through requirements for the proportion of recycled material in new packaging that is put on the market, he says.

Threatens the Swedish mortgage system

Among those who have been more critical of the new packaging law is the Center Party’s EU parliamentarian Emma Wiesner (C). During a press conference before the vote in the EU Parliament, she developed her reasoning.

– We believe that the packaging directive is at too detailed a level for it to be possible to interpret and implement. We also see that requirements in the directive risk us being forced to scrap the Swedish mortgage system, and redo it from scratch. It is not reasonable, she says.

That the Swedish deposit system can be forced to be redone is about the fact that the directive requires that beverage packaging be able to be used several times, i.e. to be reused. Sweden’s deposit system is based on bottles and bottles being crushed and then recycled.

However, Tony Clark does not see any major problem with setting higher requirements for beverage packaging to be reused.

– To begin with, I would like to say that we do not work with the deposit system in particular, but it is a system of our own. But if there are stricter requirements to reuse instead of recycling, that is only positive. This means that we are making the deposit system even better, he says.

Risk of illegal dumping of waste

Instead, he highlights other negative aspects that he foresees that the directive may lead to.

– There is a risk that there will be more administration and complicated handling. If it also becomes too expensive, there is a risk that actors choose to dump their material instead of handing it over for recycling. If costs increase, there are always actors who look for alternative ways, he says.

What does the proposal mean for Swedish actors?

– It is above all the producers who are affected. They will need to adapt around the design of the packaging and the definition of packaging. For municipal waste management, it is important that the packaging is designed in a way that makes it easy to collect and sort.

What is important to think about now, given that the directive is also approved by the Council of Ministers?

– The important thing is that producers, consumers and the municipalities work together. It is regardless, but hopefully it will lead to the work becoming simpler and more harmonized, he concludes.