NGOs Amigos de la Tierra, Ecoologistas en Acción, Greenpeace, Retorna and Surfrider, The new draft of the Royal Decree on Packaging, which the government sent to the State Council to request its consideration, “has suffered an unacceptable setback” As for the text of the first drafts, it “overrules” a large part of the Waste Act passed in April. ‘Amnesty’ for substances as controversial as bisphenol A or ‘return helmet’ to reduce packaging or marginalization of the SDDR system are some of the main criticisms.
Therefore, these organizations have requested both the director-general Marta Gómez Palenque and others in charge of the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Struggle to “respect” rather than “overrule” the Waste Law.
The signatories say they have access to the latest version of the Royal Decree project, which the Government plans to ratify in late 2022 or early 2023, and criticize it. text “overrides part of the Waste Act” and could delay the installation of a container and beverage storage system (SDDR) by up to ten yearsFor its implementation in Spain, these organizations have been fighting for years.
Thus, they predict With the container deposit system, popularly known as ‘return the helmet’, it will be possible to ‘put an end’ to 35 million beverage containers that pollute the environment and harm human health.s, however, regret that the new version of the royal decree has “repeatedly” ignored the warnings of environmental NGOs.
They also see it as a setback that the text abolished the ban on the use of toxic substances such as Phthalates and Bisphenol A in food packaging, two highly controversial substances due to their possible effects on human health.
The Royal Decree advances the goals of separate collection of plastic bottles, which points to the Act passed in April. The regulation determined that a container deposit, return and return system (SDDR) for cans, bottles and bricks would be put in place if by 2023 it is not possible to recover 70 percent of light containers via the yellow container, and this was applauded. by NGOs who hope that the person responsible for assessing compliance with that 70% target will be an independent entity.
However, the new text sent to the Council of State, The person responsible for accounting for the recovered packaging will be the packaging waste collection manager (Ecoembes) himself.
Certainly, these NGOs have been challenging Ecoembes’ packaging management figures for years. and so they regret “continuing the failings of the current model”, in the new wording of the Royal Decree, such as the lack of transparency and traceability, as well as the lack of independent control mechanisms over the individual collection figures.
Impossible to calculate the number of packages
In particular, they claim that The text does not oblige manufacturers to report the number of plastic bottles they place on the market.It leaves the definition of these percentages in the hands of industry, as it “makes any subsequent calculation impossible” and does not define the methodology necessary to determine the percentage of individual aggregates obtained.
These NGOs, in a joint statement, They warn that Ecoembes may show that it fits “the amount they want,” not just 70 percent.They will delay the arrival of the Deposit System in Spain by ten years and maintain their monopoly position.
Likewise, they criticize that different non-governmental organizations have sent a proposal to amend this issue to Marta Gómez Palenque, Director-General of Quality and Environmental Assessment, in recent months, accusing it of “outright ignoring”.
«The continuation of a historical mistake in waste management is nonsense. Ecoembes cannot be its own auditor while achieving this goal.and less when it turns out that the recycling figures presented in previous years are not robust”.
On the other hand, they thought Another step back from the Royal Decree on the Waste Act is the lifting of the ban on the use of Phthalates and Bisphenol A in food packaging with the new text., two articles about certain types of cancer. Certainly, these organizations applauded in their day the making of this ban the norm, which they consider Spain to be leading in this regard.
Ecoembes supports the standard in the process
Ecoembes has declined to respond to criticism made by these organisations, but supports the content of the text prepared by the Government. “We’ve been waiting for a long time and demanding a royal decree. – repeal the 1997 packaging law – consolidate the transition to a packaging cycle that is more sustainable and efficient in their use of resources, more transparent in their waste management and strengthens their waste prevention potential and reuses as catalysts, an Ecoembes spokesperson, in a country like Spain that already has significant strengths for packaging recycling a new production and consumption model,” he said.
“We applaud the spirit of a standard that should combine prevention and reuse. As a catalyst for a new production and consumption model in a country like Spain, which already has significant strengths in packaging recycling, but without compromising the competitiveness of our domestic market,” he added.
In addition, “The new obligations introduced in the Royal Decree will have significant transitional costs in the short term, and their impact is important in that they are commensurate with their effectiveness.”
For Ecoembes, the domain of goodwill and we’re totally into the action, much more complex but necessary. It was time. Now is the time to make the regulation a reality and solve the outstanding problems to achieve the set goals without leaving anyone behind and facing the challenges that we need to solve as soon as possible, including precise harmonization of methodologies for calculating recycling rates. 100% transparent recording and processing of information, official status of data, implementation of traceability and transparency processes, etc.”
This being, “this transformation process does not end with a royal edict. Rather, it is the starting weapon,” he recalls, and this week the draft European Packaging Regulation was presented in Brussels.
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