COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING DECISION (EU) …/…
of XXX
laying down rules for the application of Directive (EU) 2019/904 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards the calculation verification and reporting of data on recycled plastic content in single-use plastic beverage bottles
(Text with EEA relevance)
THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
Having regard to Directive (EU) 2019/904 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 June 2019 on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment 1 , and in particular Article 6(5), second subparagraph, and Article 13(4), third subparagraph, thereof,
Whereas:
(1)Directive (EU) 2019/904 sets targets for the minimum recycled plastic content in single-use plastic beverage bottles listed in Part F of the Annex to that Directive, including PET bottles. Pursuant to Directive (EU) 2019/904, the target for 2025 is at least 25% recycled plastic for PET bottles, calculated as an average for all PET bottles placed on the market on the territory of the Member State, and the target for 2030 is at least 30% recycled plastic for beverage bottles, calculated as an average for all beverage bottles placed on the market on the territory of the Member State. The Commission is to lay down the methodology for the calculation and verification of those recycled plastic content targets and the format in which the Member States are to report data on recycled plastic content in PET bottles and in beverage bottles each year.
(2)For the purposes of calculation and verification of recycled plastic content targets in single-use plastic beverage bottles, labels and sleeves should be considered as parts of beverage bottles. Firstly, a beverage bottle, in the format in which it is commonly sold to consumers, consists of its body, cap, lid, and a label or a sleeve. Labels and sleeves are used to communicate information to consumers including for branding and advertising purposes. Secondly, labels and sleeves are often attached to the bottle at the same production stage as caps and lids. The weight of labels and sleeves should therefore be included in the weight of beverage bottles, and any recycled plastic contained in labels and sleeves should be included in the weight of recycled plastic in beverage bottles. Part F of the Annex to Directive (EU) 2019/904 specifies that beverage bottles include caps and lids. In contrast to caps and lids, labels and sleeves are not often littered separately from the bottle body, which explains why they are not mentioned explicitly as an element of the bottle in Directive (EU) 2019/904.
(3)The targets for the minimum recycled plastic content laid down in Directive (EU) 2019/904 are given as a percentage of the PET bottles and of all beverage bottles placed on the Member States’ markets. Given that the objective of the targets, pursuant to recital 17 of that Directive, is to promote the market uptake of recycled plastic, with the ultimate aim to ensure the circular use of plastics, it is appropriate to consider only the plastic parts of the beverage bottles when setting out the rules for the calculation and verification of the recycled plastic content. The only part of a common single-use plastic beverage bottle that might not be made of plastic is expected to be its label, which might be of paper. As the weight of the label is estimated to be at most 5 % of the weight of the bottle, the exclusion of non-plastic parts of the beverage bottles from the calculation has no significant impact on the assessment of whether the targets have been attained.
(4)For the purpose of calculating and verifying recycled plastic content in beverage bottles and reporting on it, the term ‘recycled plastic’ should be defined. Recycled plastic should only include material that has been post-consumer plastic waste before entering recycling as pre-consumer waste as there are already sufficient market incentives for its recycling. Moreover, Directive (EU) 2019/904 aims to reduce the impact of certain plastic products on the environment and pre-consumer plastic waste is usually not leaked into the environment. Post-consumer plastic waste needs to be understood as waste generated from plastic products that have been placed on the market. Plastic waste resulting from plastic packaging of products that have been placed on the market but have passed their expiry date before being sold to consumers should therefore be considered to be post-consumption plastic waste. Consequently, plastic materials and waste generated during production or manufacturing processes, including all secondary processing, testing, storage and transfers prior to the product being placed on the market should not be considered post-consumption waste.
(5)Pursuant to Directive (EU) 2019/904, Member States are to report to the Commission information on recycled plastic content in PET bottles and in all beverage bottles to demonstrate the attainment of the targets of recycled plastic content. While recycled content refers to the amount of recycled material, the targets are expressed as percentages, namely, as the proportion of recycled plastic in the beverage bottles and in PET bottles. To demonstrate the attainment of the targets, Member States should therefore be obliged to report not only the sum of the weight of recycled plastic content in beverage bottles and in PET bottles, but also the sum of the weight of the plastic parts of the bottles themselves so that the proportion of the recycled plastic content can be calculated.
(6)Commission Regulation (EU) 2022/1616 2 establishes a reporting chain throughout consecutive manufacturing steps that includes reporting of the percentage of recycled plastic in each batch of material that contains recycled plastic and is intended to come into contact with foods. That reporting chain obliges economic operators that operate at early stages of the manufacturing chain, namely recyclers and converters, to provide a declaration of compliance. Converters that do not place the beverage bottles on the market, and recyclers, are not required to calculate the weight of recycled plastic in such bottles. The declaration of compliance is to be handed down to the economic operators at later stages of the manufacturing chain, including to the economic operators that place the beverage bottles on the market. Reporting obligations under Regulation (EU) 2022/1616 cover all plastic parts with recycled content of beverage bottles that are within the scope of Directive (EU) 2019/904. The economic operators that place beverage bottles on the market are therefore able to calculate the weight of recycled plastic in such bottles on the basis of the percentage of recycled plastic content indicated in the declaration of compliance for each part of the bottles. As the objective of this Decision is to enable uniform calculation and verification of the recycled content targets established in Directive (EU) 2019/904, the calculation needs to be done in a consistent manner across Member States. Member States should therefore base the calculation of the recycled plastic content in beverage bottles on the data generated in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2022/1616. Moreover, such methodology minimises administrative burden on economic operators and Member States. Member States should therefore collect from economic operators that place beverage bottles on their market data on the weight of the plastic parts of those bottles and the weight of recycled plastic contained therein.
(7)The definitions of ‘plastic’ referred to in Regulation (EU) 2022/1616 and in Directive (EU) 2019/904 differ as they refer to different definitions of ‘polymer’; the first one is based on how the material has been manufactured while the second one is based on its present structural properties. Moreover, the definition of ‘plastic’ in Directive (EU) 2019/904 excludes natural polymers that have not been chemically modified. However, these differences are not relevant for the beverage bottles that are in the scope of Directive (EU) 2019/904. The definition of ‘recycled plastic’ in Regulation (EU) 2022/1616 differs from the definition introduced by this Decision in that, in theory, it may contain virgin plastic that has been added in the decontamination process. However, if any virgin material was added, this would be reflected in the information provided by recyclers and passed down in the value chain. It will not count towards the recycled plastic content as defined in this Decision. The differences in the definitions of ‘plastic’ and ‘recycled plastic’ are therefore not relevant for the purposes of this Decision.
(8)As all parts of beverage bottles are materials intended to come into contact with food, Regulation (EU) 2017/625 of the European Parliament and of the Council 3 applies to beverage bottles, including official controls of the percentage of recycled plastic that recyclers and converters have to provide in the declaration of compliance in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2022/1616. Therefore, Member States should only be required to introduce additional verification provisions regarding the transmission of information to the Member States by the economic operators that place beverage bottles on the market, required by this Decision.
(9)Recycled plastic in beverage bottles is either subject to Regulation (EU) 2022/1616, or to Commission Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 4 , depending on the recycling technology by which it is obtained. Under Regulation (EU) 2022/1616 the only suitable recycling technology that at present can be used to obtain recycled plastic for beverage bottles is mechanical recycling of post-consumer PET waste. Plastic resulting from chemical recycling technologies that break down the input waste into substances listed in Annex I to Regulation (EU) No 10/2011, and which is subsequently used in the manufacture of new plastic in accordance with that Regulation, cannot be distinguished from virgin material. Therefore, compliance documentation issued in accordance with that Regulation presently does not indicate the amount of recycled content therein. This Decision takes only into account recycled plastic in beverage bottles that is in the scope of Regulation (EU) 2022/1616.
(10)In order to take into account also recycled plastic in beverage bottles that has not been obtained by mechanical recycling of PET waste, the Commission plans to draft an amendment of this Decision to include a methodology to calculate, verify and report recycled plastic content in beverage bottles that is based on the application of certain chain of custody models as defined in ISO 22095-2020 (Chain of custody — General terminology and models). In particular, controlled blending, which allows to account also for non-mechanically recycled PET, is a possible chain of custody model. In addition, a mass balance approach may be included as an admissible chain of custody model to also account for plastic in non-PET bottles resulting from feedstock recycling.
(11)The rules for the calculation and verification of the recycled plastic content targets and the format for reporting data and information on recycled plastic content referred are closely linked as they refer to the same recycled plastic in the same bottles. In order to ensure coherence, the rules for calculation and verification of the content targets, and the format for reporting data and information should be laid down in one legal act.