The Euro­pean Com­mis­sion has con­firmed that the planned ban on styrenic pack­ag­ing in France, set for 2025 under the Cli­mate and Resilience Law, will not be enforce­able. This deci­sion comes as the ban con­flicts with the upcom­ing EU Pack­ag­ing and Pack­ag­ing Waste Reg­u­la­tion (PPWR), and no enforce­ment mea­sures will be imple­ment­ed, accord­ing to reli­able sources. More­over, a recent notice pub­lished in the Offi­cial Jour­nal has clar­i­fied the def­i­n­i­tion of non-recy­clable styrenic pack­ag­ing in line with EU regulations.

Source: L’Usine Nou­velle.

Pub­li­ca­tion of Offi­cial Notice

The notice, pub­lished in the Offi­cial Jour­nal on 30 Sep­tem­ber 2024, spec­i­fies that for the French Envi­ron­ment Code, non-recy­clable styrenic pack­ag­ing is defined as pack­ag­ing that does not fall into recy­cla­bil­i­ty per­for­mance class­es A, B, or C as out­lined in Arti­cle 6 of the draft PPWR. This aligns French law with the upcom­ing PPWR, which pro­vides for recy­cla­bil­i­ty to be assessed based on design-for-recy­cling cri­te­ria start­ing from 1 Jan­u­ary 2030. The full text can be accessed here.

Con­flict with Euro­pean Regulations

Infor­ma­tion obtained by Plas­tiques & Caoutchoucs Mag­a­zine reveals that the French ban on styrenic pack­ag­ing, sched­uled for 2025, can­not be applied due to its con­flict with future Euro­pean leg­is­la­tion. The Euro­pean Com­mis­sion has affirmed in writ­ing that, upon the PPWR’s enforce­ment, any nation­al laws in contradiction—such as the planned ban—will become inapplicable.

In a let­ter dat­ed 28 August, the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion clear­ly stat­ed that the PPWR will direct­ly apply to nation­al laws once it comes into force. This means any con­tra­dic­to­ry nation­al leg­is­la­tion, includ­ing France’s pro­posed ban under the Cli­mate and Resilience Law, will no longer be valid. The prob­lem lies in the lack of clear cri­te­ria in the French law, which was not aligned with EU reg­u­la­tion, even though EPS and PS mate­ri­als are recyclable.

No Inspec­tions Planned

Fur­ther­more, the French Direc­torate-Gen­er­al for Com­pe­ti­tion Pol­i­cy, Con­sumer Affairs and Fraud Con­trol (DGCCRF) will not enforce the ban through inspec­tions. Accord­ing to a well-informed source, the DGCCRF has stat­ed it will not con­duct checks to ensure com­pli­ance with the ban, as no con­di­tions essen­tial for enforce­ment have been established.

EU Noti­fi­ca­tions and Leg­isla­tive Framework

In its response, the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion also empha­sised that nation­al texts estab­lish­ing tech­ni­cal rules, which are cur­rent­ly under con­sid­er­a­tion at the Euro­pean lev­el, will be inap­plic­a­ble if they have not been noti­fied to the Com­mis­sion, as required under Direc­tive (EU) 2015/1535.

The PPWR is expect­ed to be defin­i­tive­ly adopt­ed by the end of Novem­ber 2024. Once in force, any nation­al laws con­tra­dict­ing the PPWR will be under scruti­ny. As the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion stat­ed, “Once the reg­u­la­tion is in effect, Mem­ber States must adhere to EU rules and ensure their imple­men­ta­tion. Com­pli­ance with the reg­u­la­tion is essen­tial to main­tain har­monised stan­dards, fos­ter coop­er­a­tion, and uphold the integri­ty of the inter­nal market.”

Har­mon­i­sa­tion Across the EU

Lea Sal­i­hovic, EUMEPS EU Pol­i­cy Man­ag­er, com­ment­ed: “As the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion empha­sis­es, once the PPWR is enforced, nation­al laws con­flict­ing with EU har­monised reg­u­la­tions must adapt or become unen­force­able. This affects not only styrenic pack­ag­ing and the Cli­mate and Resilience Law but also key areas like reuse, recy­cled con­tent, and pro­hi­bi­tions across the EU. A uni­fied approach is cru­cial to pre­vent frag­men­ta­tion and ensure the smooth func­tion­ing of the inter­nal mar­ket.”

The Euro­pean Commission’s stance high­lights a fun­da­men­tal point: when the PPWR comes into force, nation­al legal frame­works that con­flict with the EU’s har­monised reg­u­la­tions will need to adapt. If they do not, these nation­al pro­vi­sions will be unen­force­able. This applies not only to the Cli­mate and Resilience Law and styrenic pack­ag­ing but also to oth­er areas such as reuse, recy­cled con­tent, and var­i­ous pro­hi­bi­tions across the EU.

This sit­u­a­tion under­scores the impor­tance of a uni­fied Euro­pean approach, ensur­ing that nation­al reg­u­la­tions align with com­mon EU rules to avoid frag­men­ta­tion and ensure the smooth func­tion­ing of the inter­nal market.

EUMEPS con­tin­ues to advo­cate for the respon­si­ble use of EPS pack­ag­ing and calls for poli­cies that sup­port inno­va­tion and recy­cla­bil­i­ty across the sec­tor. Stay informed about our lat­est ini­tia­tives by vis­it­ing our website.