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New EU Packaging Waste Regulation Nudges EPS Into Circular Supply Chains
The European Parliament recently passed new Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), expected to enter into force in the last quarter of 2024. The packaging and foam industries have taken their responsibility to develop circular economies with initiatives like EPSolutely in Austria.
What should you do with all the white foam packaging piling up from Amazon deliveries? Your municipal waste management company will tell you they cannot recycle “styrofoam” and won’t accept it in their recycling bins. Most expanded polystyrene (EPS) ends up in regular trash and landfills, unnecessarily according to Chresten Heide-Anderson, project manager at the Danish and Norwegian EPS Associations and Vice-President at EUMEPS. ‘EPS is the easiest thing to recycle,’ he says, ‘but it is a little complicated to properly collect it.’
Expanded polystyrene (EPS) is 2% polystyrene, 98% air and 100% recyclable. In Europe the recycling rate for EPS is inching up to 40% according to a study by consulting and research company Conversio commissioned by EUMEPS (European Manufacturers of Expanded Polystyrene). The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a British charity committed to creating a circular economy, took EPS off their list of non-recyclable materials after being presented with the data in 2023, now admitting that EPS is already ‘recycled at scale and in practice on a global level’.
Some European countries, including Denmark, Netherlands, Austria, Belgium and Ireland, have recycling rates over 50%. In Portugal and Norway the rate is closer to 90%, mostly thanks to fish boxes. Fishing and a few other industries already have their own established circular supply chains. The stuff that ends up in households is the problem. Consumer-level EPS is not recycled, because it is bulky and the resell value of reclaimed material, after sorting, compacting and chemically recycling, can’t cover the processing and transport costs.
The European construction industry currently produces 200 kilotonnes EPS waste per year, forecasted to multiply over the next decade. Less than 8% of that EPS waste is recycled; most is incinerated or landfilled. EPS waste from demolitions often contains hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), a flame retardant that was used until 2016, but has since been banned. New foam products are not allowed to have more than 100 parts per million of HBCD. Glue, cement residues and other pollutants already make EPS construction waste recycling challenging. Virgin polystyrene is usually the cheaper option compared to reclaimed raw materials or reusing EPS packaging that degrades over time.
The perception of unrecyclability put EPS in the crosshairs of EU regulation. The new European Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) aims to reverse the increase in packaging waste. Built on an earlier EU Directive, which left implementation details up to the member states, the new Regulation introduces central rules that apply directly and equally in all member states. Under the PPWR, all packaging must be recyclable. Void space, including space filled with foam, must not exceed 50%. There are mandatory quotas for reusable packaging and minimums for recycled content in packaging. Retailers and packaging suppliers have to provide detailed information about material composition and have representatives in all members states under the concept of extended producer responsibility (EPR), introduced in the previous Directive.
The packaging and foam industries have taken their responsibility. Several initiatives in different parts of Europe have sprung up in recent years to preempt coming sustainability regulation. In Austria the construction company PORR in 2022 launched the EPSolutely research project, led by Fraunhofer Austria with partners including Hirsch Porozell, Sunpor Kunststoff, retailers Liebherr and XXXLutz and Lindner Recyclingtech. The entire EPS supply chain is involved. The project researched how logistics and transport systems could be optimised for a circular economy in EPS, selecting the most promising concepts to turn into pilot projects.
But EU sustainability rules don’t always make sense and can have unintended consequences. The PPWR’s shift of focus from recycling to reusing has drawn criticism from packaging industry association EUROPEN, food packaging trade association 360° Foodservice and others. Makers of cardboard packaging have complained that the entire retail sector will have to switch to plastic crates, which may be reusable, but will still degrade and end up in landfills. Article 40 of the PPWR, that requires having a representative in each member state, creates significant trade barriers for small retailers. Uncertainty around PPWR implementation details could put a drag on the European retail market for years to come.
JOIN US AT FOAM EXPO EUROPE, STUTTGART, GERMANY, 3-5 DECEMBER
On the Sustainability Day at the Foam Expo conference, Wednesday, December 4 in Stuttgart, EUMEPS Vice-President Chresten Heide-Anderson will moderate a panel on EPS recycling with Markus Kraft, Director Group Procurement & ESG at Hirsch Gruppe, Virginie Bussières, Vice-President External Relations and Partnerships at Polystyvert and Antti Tynys, Application Development Engineer at Borealis.