Currently, legislation is setting the guidelines for work related to the use of plastic materials in packaging. The following outline details the legislative directives that apply to plastic packaging at present:
Directive 2019/904, concerning the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment. Also known as the Single-Use Plastics Directive, it establishes specific measures to prevent and reduce the impact of certain plastic products on the environment and human health, setting requirements such as those detailed below:
- Plastic products with plastic caps and lids may only be placed on the market if the caps or lids remain attached to the container…
- Regarding plastic bottles, each Member State shall ensure that: a) as of 2025, beverage bottles… whose main component in manufacturing is polyethylene terephthalate (“PET bottles”) contain at least 25% recycled plastic, calculated as an average of all PET bottles introduced to the market within its territory; and b) as of 2030, beverage bottles… contain at least 30% recycled plastic, calculated as an average of all such beverage bottles introduced to the market within its territory.
This directive requires transposition to be applied in each of the Member States.
Law 7/2022, on waste and contaminated soil for a circular economy. It corresponds to the transposition of the previous European directive into Spanish legislation, extensively covering measures for waste reduction and establishing measures to promote the circular economy:
- Non-Recycled Plastic: a rate of €0.45/kg is applied to the manufacture, intra-community acquisition, and importation of non-recycled plastic products intended for consumption and use within the Spanish national market.
- Recycled Plastic: it sets January 1, 2024, as the deadline for manufacturers to certify compliance with UNE EN 15343: “Recycled Plastics. Traceability and conformity assessment of plastics recycling and recycled content.”
Regulation 10/2011, on plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact with food. In summary, this regulation, along with Reg. 1935/2004 and 2023/2006, establishes:
- Requirements for the manufacture of plastic packaging for food contact,
- Tests to be carried out for the validation of packaging (Migration Tests),
- Appropriate documentation to be transmitted along the food chain (Declaration of Conformity).
Regulation 2022/1616, concerning recycled plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact with food. This regulation complements Reg. 10/2011 and establishes specific guidelines for recycled plastics on:
- Authorization of recycling technologies and development of innovative technologies
- Procedures for authorization of recycling processes
- Registry of technologies, recyclers, recycling facilities
- Model of Declaration of Conformity to be used by recyclers
- Model Declaration of Conformity to be used by plastic transformers
Currently, HEIS GLOBAL, in compliance with the legislation applicable to the packaging it manufactures, offers PET and RPET packaging and is certified under UNE-EN 15343 for packaging manufactured with different percentages of RPET. If you need more information, please contact us; we will be happy to assist you!
