BRC recycling logo ‘puzzles’ Europen

The European Council for Packaging and the Environ-ment (Europen) said, in its response to the BRC and Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap) consultation, that a number of factors had caused surprise and puzzlement among its members.

Managing director Julian Carroll pointed out that, under the European Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive, the decision to use the label would require prior notification to the European Commission because a government-funded organisation, Wrap, was one of the signatories (see box).

He also highlighted the absence of any reference to the Green Claims Code, published in June 2000, which suggested the ISO 14021 standard was the benchmark of good practice for this type of information.

The proposed logo, which shows the recyclability of the different components of a pack, was launched last November (Packaging News, December 2007) and has already been trialled on around 24 Asda products.

BRC policy advisor Edward Cook said the aim of the consultation was to utilise the expertise of stakeholders. The BRC is reviewing submissions and its response is due shortly.

The logo’s three categories are ‘widely recycled’, for materials recycled by more than 65% of local authorities; ‘check locally’, from 20% to 64%; and ‘not currently recycled’, less than 20% of local authorities.

Tetra Pak remains confident that it will be moved out of the bottom category, but Wrap declined to say if it would recommend a change in status.
waste directive – obstacle to adoption

Article 16 of the European Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive says that member states must submit drafts of measures that they intend to adopt within the framework of the directive to the Commission for examination, including the technical specifications of fiscal measures, but not the measures themselves.

For more information on the directive, visit http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/packaging_index.htm

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