"Essential Requirements for Packaging in Europe - A Practical Guide to Using the CEN Standards" aims to ensure companies comply with the EU's Essential Requirements for Packaging set out in the new Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive .
Europen, which is the European Organization for Packaging and the Environment, says that these requirements relate to the manufacturing and composition of packaging, specifications to ensure packaging is recoverable from the waste stream and its suitability for reuse when appropriate.
Recycling has become a key issue on the EU political agenda in recent years, and in an effort to increase objectives, pressure is mounting on all industries that rely heavily on packaging in an effort to help fulfil strict recycling quotas.
Compliance with the Essential Requirements has been an EU-wide legal obligation for all packaging since January 1998. While use of the CEN Standards is voluntary, they are a means for companies to demonstrate that their packaging complies with the Essential Requirements.
In additions to the CEN Standards, recycling requirements increased considerably last year when the European Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive of 1994 was revised. It covers all packaging placed on the market in the EU and all packaging waste, whether it is used or released at the industrial, commercial, office, shop, service, household or any other level, regardless of the material used.
A report earlier this year revealed that although all EU countries were supposed to have fulfilled the stricter EU recycling regulations, only five countries had actually done so. The new requirements roughly doubled package recycling requirements, which were achieved by the UK, Austria, Germany, Luxembourg and Czech Republic.
The regulations means both industry and consumers are having to adapt in order to achieve the targets. For the cosmetic and toiletry industry packaging plays an important part in the manufacturing process - indeed packaging often packaging can prove to be more expensive than ingredients - which means that adapting to the recycling requirements is particularly important.
The legal obligation affects all sectors of the packaging chain, from raw materials suppliers and packaging manufacturers, to companies placing packaged goods on the EU market and retailers who package their own goods, says Europen. Packaged goods imported from outside the EU are similarly obliged.
The 70-page publication provides both a summary and a more detailed guide with step-by-step instructions for those who are less familiar with the CEN Standards. It also supplies a directory of contacts and can be ordered from the Europen website.