EPR guidelines to be published in November

The guidelines on the practical implementation of the new minimum requirements for extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes are going to be published in November, according to the European Commission.

An advanced draft of these guidelines is currently being discussed with member states. The final guidelines should contribute to ensuring that the requirements of the 2018 amended Waste Framework Directive are implemented in a manner that is as harmonised as possible across member states.

The guidelines are based on a report by the consulting firm Eunomia, which was published in May this year and whose draft European Recycling Platform (ERP) commented on earlier in January (see here). It is worth noting that several comments from ERP have been taken up not only in the final report by Eunomia, but also in the current draft of the Commission’s guidelines. ERP remains in close contact with the Commission and is supporting them in finalising the guidelines.

In parallel, the Commission is working on the guidelines for implementing the Single-Use Plastic Directive. These are supposed to clarify which products fall within the scope of the directive and how to deal with possible overlaps with the Packaging Directive. These guidelines are also expected to be adopted shortly.