PPWR – Permanent Material Alliance welcomes European Parliament’s ambition on recyclability

The Permanent Material Alliance - regrouping the Association of European Producers of Steel for Packaging (APEAL), European Aluminium, the European Container Glass Federation (FEVE) and Metal Packaging Europe - welcomes the European Parliament’s Environment Committee support for more ambitious recyclability measures in the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR).

Because of their inherent properties, aluminium, glass and steel have the potential to be recycled over and over again, and therefore be permanent resources for closed material loop schemes. This translates into major sustainability – environmental, economic, and social impacts.

“Recyclability performance grades now introduced in the PPWR are a great step forward to a truly EU Circular Economy. These grades, a first of their kind, will reward packaging that can be recycled multiple times and that can feed into a closed material loop scheme”, said Alexis Van Maercke, Secretary General of APEAL.

“The introduction of a definition for ‘high-quality recycling is surely a very important move” said Sarah Cuvellier, Deputy CEO of Metal Packaging Europe, “however, we believe that the ENVI Committee could have been more ambitious by emphasizing materials’ ability to withstand multiple recycling loops without any change to their main material properties. An ambitious definition of ‘high quality recycling’ would stimulate the manufacturers of packaging to increase the design for recycling of their packaging and further boost their effective and efficient recycling”.

Maarten Labberton, Director Packaging Group of European Aluminium, commented “High quality recycling of packaging materials highly depends on the availability of efficient separate collection and sorting systems for packaging waste. A timely and ambitious approach which encourages the separate collection of packaging waste in all EU Member States is a must. We fully support the separate collection target of 90% endorsed by the ENVI Committee”.

“We are glad to see that the ENVI Committee adopted packaging waste reduction targets to mitigate against the risk of substitution of fully circular materials (Permanent Materials) by difficult to recycle packaging materials” added Adeline Farrelly, Secretary General of FEVE. “Aluminium, glass and steel largely prevent waste generation as they are today already collected, sorted and undergo high-quality endless recycling into new loops.”

The European Union is proving global leadership in driving from a linear to a real circular economy. With respective recycling rates of 73%[1], 80.1%[2] and 85.5%[3], the aluminium, glass and steel sectors are top performers for recycling packaging materials and are well-positioned to play a pivotal role in advancing the transition to a circular economy.

[1] Recycling rate for aluminium beverage cans (2020)
[2] Collection rate for glass packaging (2021)
[3] Recycling rate for all steel packaging segments (2020)

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