Washington State’s Governor Jay Inslee has signed legislation that requires the Department of Ecology to submit a report to the legislature with recommendations on the management and disposal of plastic packaging. Due by October 31, 2020, the report must include:

The European Council adopted the Single-Use Plastics Directive on May 21, 2019. The Directive will impact plastic food-contact articles through several initiatives, including bans on certain single-use plastics, increased collection goals, measures to reduce the consumption of plastic food containers, and extended producer responsibility requirements. (For background information, see the PackagingLaw.com article, EU Publishes Updated Draft of Single-Use Plastics Directive.)

Even though the RIC symbols were changed from “chasing arrows” to solid triangles in 2013, I still see a lot of cosmetic products exported from U...

The Council of the European Union published on January 18, 2019, an amended version of the draft Directive on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment (also referred to as the “Single-Use Plastics Directive”). The amended draft directive makes significant changes to the European Commission’s (EC’s) original proposed draft of May 28, 2018.

The American Institute for Packaging and the Environment (AMERIPEN) has issued a guidance document aimed at improving the clarity and alignment of definitions for packaging materials and management processes. AMERIPEN is a coalition of companies covering the entire supply chain spectrum, from producers to end-of-life materials managers.

Germany’s new Packaging Law (VerpackG) became effective on January 1, 2019 and replaced the German Packaging Ordinance (VerpackV) . VerpackG establishes a new national authority (Zentrale Stelle), significantly increases targets for material recycling, and adds new registration and data reporting requirements.

Both the amount, by weight, of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles available for recycling and the amount of PET bottles recycled declined in 2017. However, since fewer PET bottles were available for recycling overall, the recycling rate actually increased between 2016 and 2017. These are among the finding in a report issued by the National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR) and the Association of Plastic Recyclers (ARP).

The European Parliament (EP) adopted its position (i.e., amendments) on the proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment (Draft Single-Use Plastics Directive) on October 24, 2018. (A copy of the EP’s position can be found here.)

Treasury Chancellor Philip Hammond announced that the United Kingdom will introduce a new tax on the manufacture and import of plastic packaging that contains less than 30% recycled plastic during his recent Autumn Budget speech.