Swedish Enterprise welcomes the proposal for a Regulation and considers it an important step towards a more circular economy in Europe and as an important part in implementing the Green Deal and the Circular Economy Action Plan. Preventing and reducing packaging waste, increasing reuse and high-quality material recycling as well as creating a market for recycled materials are all key elements of a circular economy. Swedish Enterprise welcomes the fact that the European Commission’s legislative proposal is in the form of a Regulation. This will provide greater harmonisation in the EU’s internal market, which is a precondition for the further development of a circular economy. It is essential that specific national regulations are avoided wherever possible.
In designing the legislation, it is important to strike the correct balance between recycling and reusing materials. Both measures are needed to a greater extent than at present, but they also need to complement each other, in order to ensure the highest possible overall benefit in terms of climate, environment and resource efficiency.
Swedish Enterprise would also like to highlight the importance of Member States taking the necessary measures to ensure separate collection systems. Without a well-functioning collection system, that ensures a high quality of collected fractions, “recycling at scale” will not be possible to reach. Swedish Enterprise supports Rapporteur Frédérique Ries’ suggested sepa-rate collection target of 90 percent as a high collection volume is an essential first step to en-sure the creation of a real market for recyclates.
All objectives suggested in the proposal must be based on scientific and material-specific data regarding the climate and environmental benefits, logistics, hygiene aspects and the im-portance of a high return rate and low waste and losses. From this perspective, legislation on reuse, for example, needs to be preceded by independent comparisons from a system and life cycle perspective to ensure that we avoid environmental sub-optimisation.
The introduction of requirements in legislation also needs to safeguard already existing well-established and well-functioning systems for the recycling of certain types of packaging. One example is the return-deposit system that Sweden has had for 35 years, one which has been built up through continuous investment. The collection rate for cans and PET bottles in 2021 was 88.2 percent. Any new systems or new rules that are introduced must not risk disrupting that which is currently functioning well.
Swedish Enterprise supports the proposal that the measures should primarily focus on those types of packaging where there is a need for increased circularity and recycling. Swedish Enterprise therefore welcomes the fact that, for example, cardboard and corrugated board used for transport packaging is exempt from the requirement for reuse. There are also currently several other products on the market with well-functioning recycling systems; these should also be removed from the scope of these requirements. These include fish boxes within the food sector as well as the stretch film and cable ties used in packaging for transport.
It is also important that the requirements in the Regulation are designed in such a way that the material in packaging placed on the market can be recycled several times. This means that the requirements should be designed in order to ensure that the material is recycled to as high a quality as possible and for as long as possible. This will ensure that recycled raw materials of a continued high quality are not incorporated into a product that cannot be included in a recycling process in a later stage.
The requirements set out in the Regulation need to be designed in such a way that they are clear, practical and capable of being monitored. Swedish Enterprise therefore stresses the im-portance of reducing – as far as possible – the administrative burden and costs that the proposal may entail for companies, not least small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and micro enterprises. For example, in order to help reduce the administrative burden, the registration requirements in the Regulation may be designed with enough flexibility to allow Member States to gather registration for several legislations in a single place. Requirements for producers to register packaging will be found in several legislations; bringing them together will make it simpler for both authorities and industry.
Standardisation must continue to have a key role in defining the methods and demonstrating compliance with product requirements. Swedish Enterprise favours harmonised standards over technical specifications.
Finally, Swedish Enterprise would also like to draw attention to the very problematic nature of the Commission’s proposal in Article 7(10), that they should be given the authority to determine when a price on the free market is excessive. Such a development is completely contrary to the core principle that the transition to a circular economy should be market-driven. Swedish Enterprise believes that ultimately it should be the market that determines the price of a raw material; opening up the possibility of indirectly limiting a market price via legislation is both remarkable and deeply concerning.