It’s all about packaging!

Landbell Group joins a debate on the European regulation

4 April 2023

On 9^th March, Novo Verde – a Landbell Company partner company – held a debate that was part of its Packaging Enterprise Award, called “New Packaging Regulations and New Challenges for the Sector”.

The debate focused on the European Packaging Regulation proposed by the European Commission and was attended by many experts, including Ana Cristina Carrola, director at the Portuguese Environmental Protection Agency (APA).

The event was also attended by Pedro Simões and Ricardo Neto of Novo Verde who opened and closed the debate respectively, and by Thomas Fischer, head of Market Intelligence and Governmental Affairs at Landbell Group.

Ana Cristina Carrola and Thomas Fischer introduced the expected timeline and key requirements of the proposed legislation from a Member State and a producer perspective respectively. They discussed the change from a directive to a regulation, promoting the idea of the European harmonisation of requirements to create a level playing field and a truly European circular economy within the EU internal market.

Thomas Fischer also highlighted that, by 2030, all packaging must be recyclable and, by 2035, at scale – requiring the related infrastructure to be in place in all Member States. He also reflected on another objective of the Commission’s proposal: packaging prevention, for example, by reducing reduce free space in packaging to a maximum of 40%, thus using packaging more effectively.

Representatives of the packaging industry then discussed the challenges that will arise for their sector and for their different packaging materials in the future.

The Novo Verde Enterprise Award’s aim is to identify and support the best project in the packaging and packaging waste sector. The deadline for application was on 31 March, and the winner will be awarded €25,000 during the reward ceremony on 23 May.

Speaking about the award, Pedro Simoes pointed out: “Innovation involves doing things in a new or different way, introducing added value. It is innovation that we intend to stimulate, through research and development.”

For more information on the event and for interviews with some of the speakers, please click here.