Packaging, Confindustria joins forces to revise the EU regulation
[ad_1]
The “zero waste” and “climate neutrality” objectives, which the European regulation on packaging under discussion in Parliament aims at, are shared, but it is the way to achieve them that is unanimously opposed by Italian industrialists, gathered in Bologna in a closed-door meeting with EPP MEP Massimiliano Salini, to share how to improve the proposal that next December should be dismissed by the EU Parliament-Council-Commission trialogue and save decades of investments made by Italy in the recycling of packaging waste, which make our A country of excellence in terms of circular economy.
An unprecedented aspect, compared to other iterations of much-discussed EU regulations, emerged during the conference “Proposal for an EU regulation on packaging and derived waste. Prospects and future scenarios for businesses”, organized by Confindustria Emilia-Romagna and Confindustria Emilia Area Centro, with the collaboration of Ucima (manufacturers of automatic packing and packaging machines): the compactness of the whole Italian entrepreneurial system ( agriculture and trade included) to obtain from Brussels a new cost-benefit impact assessment, a relaxation (or an exclusion) of the obligations on reuse for countries that reach a high recycling threshold and a lapse of at least 48 months before of the entry into force of the legislation.
The nodes of the proposal
«In the European Parliament – explains the honorable Salini of Forza Italia, rapporteur to the Environment commission of the proposal for a new “Packaging Waste Regulation” – we are working to bring the text proposed by the Commission back into common sense, wrong from the start because it replaces the order to reduce waste with the reduction of packaging, imposing consumption patterns on people and businesses. The sudden about-face on recycling in the name of reuse is not justifiable, it looks to the past, it does not take into account the industrial specificities of the member countries and frustrates the efforts of Italian companies which, thanks to their extraordinary ability to innovate, have become a European model surpassing 70% packaging recycling rate, meeting the Commission’s targets nine years ahead of schedule. Now, the latter turns incomprehensibly on reuse, without providing impact analysis and paradoxically opening up to increases in water and energy consumption that would harm the environment. We are also against a restrictive definition of “high quality recycling” and “close loop recycling” (for which a recycled cardboard packaging must return to cardboard packaging, ed.) which would put entire industrial chains out of play».
The risks to industry and public health
«We do not dispute the environmental objectives, on the contrary we strongly support them – remarked Maurizio Marchesini, Confindustria vice president for supply chains and medium-sized enterprises -. Rather, we contest the ideological setting of the reform proposal which, as it is conceived, risks damaging numerous strategic sectors of the Italian and European economic fabric. Orienting consumption towards the uncritical promotion of short and 0 km supply chains (farm to fork), favoring loose products and the reuse of packaging to the detriment of recycling, is in contrast with the propensity of Italian companies to export and with the needs of the agriculture, industry and commerce. A regulation exclusively in favor of reuse at the expense of recycling would not limit the environmental impact: in many cases the recycling of single-use packaging is the most sustainable option, because it involves less water and energy consumption, safeguarding hygiene problems and safety. The European Commission must indicate the objectives, but leave it up to companies and their ability to innovate the way to achieve them, applying that technological neutrality that we are recalling as necessary in various fields”.
The most exposed supply chains on the Via Emilia
Words fully espoused by the president of Ucima, Riccardo Cavanna, who leads a niche of Made in Italy mechanics, packaging technologies, world leader and back from a record 2022 in which he reached the historical peak for turnover (8.54 billion euros in 2022, almost 80% exports) and direct employees (almost 38 thousand) and 60% of which is concentrated precisely in Emilia-Romagna. «Other key sectors for our region are strongly impacted by the regulation – adds the president of Confindustria Emilia-Romagna, Annalisa Sassi – such as the plastics supply chain, with 7,800 active companies and 117,000 employees, and the food sector which counts here 4,600 companies and 450,000 employees. Strongly exporting sectors for which the ban on the use of numerous types of packaging can create obstacles to international trade”. «It is a non-sustainable measure, even more so for the environment than for the economy – underlines Cavanna, recalling that packaging has made democratic and accessible goods that were not before – because food waste has a ten times greater impact than packaging waste. The point is to find the right compromise between reuse and recycling and between the sustainability of the various supply chains involved and the needs of citizen-consumers, with a non-ideological pragmatic approach».
[ad_2]
Source link
