The final version of the Royal Decree on Packaging, approved at the Cabinet last year, maintains the spirit of the Waste Act and ensures that the single-use industry cannot self-assess against separate collection targets for plastic bottles, as requested by Zero Waste Alliance entities .
Thus, a strong and transparent roadmap adheres to the arrival of the Beverage Container Deposit System, with which an end can be put to the 35 million beverage containers that pollute the environment every day and harm people’s health.
Environmental entities also celebrated the Ministry of Environmental Transition and Demographic Challenge’s affirmation of banning the use of toxic substances in food packaging such as phthalates and Bisphenol A, and requesting the executive branch to be meticulous in complying with it, as it stands. On a public health issue of the first order.
Friends of the Earth, Ecologists in Action, Greenpeace, Return, Rezero and Surfrider Spain, the organizations that make up the Zero Waste Coalition, positively appreciate the final version of the Royal Decree on Packaging and Waste, approved by the Cabinet, prioritizing health People and environmental protection above pressure lobby plastic, thus respecting what was agreed upon in the Waste Law, which was passed by a large majority in the House of Representatives last April.
“We celebrate that the ministry and government partners have taken this crucial step towards transparency and that this was also done from the articles of the law and not from an appendix. By this Royal Decree, for the first time, plastic bottle producers are required annually to limit the number of bottles they put on the market, ”the members of the alliance estimated Zero Waste Alliance.
Specifically, the Royal Decree on Packaging is the regulation that must ensure measuring targets for separate collection of plastic bottles of less than three liters, which were created to reduce hazardous plastic pollution in the terrestrial and marine environment. The Waste Act determined that by 2023, if 70% of the plastic beverage bottles placed on the market have not been recovered through the yellow container, we will be able to “restructure” again through the deposit system for cans, bottles and cubes. In order to comply with this roadmap, it was necessary that the manager of the separate collection for packaging waste not be responsible for counting the bottles retrieved separately. Finally, thanks to the collaboration between the Ministry of Teresa Ribera, the Ministry of Social Rights and the 2030 Agenda of Ione Belarra, this request of civil society has been fulfilled.
The organizations also praise the fact that bans on the use of phthalates and Bisphenol A in food packaging have been confirmed. This prohibition has already been enshrined in the Waste Act and is key to protecting the health of people, especially pregnant women, from substances known to be hormone-disrupting and have a significant effect on some types of cancer. The entities insisted that “the government must be very vigilant to ensure compliance with this prohibition and respect for what has been agreed in the waste law, and from civil society we remain vigilant to ensure that this is the case.”
“Regulations are put in place in order to comply with the law, not the other way around. We appreciate the efforts of Teresa Ribera, the Ministry and government partners in respecting this natural order despite strong pressure from the waste disposal industry, and we reiterate our collaboration from now on, to build a methodology that allows us to measure the discrete set of plastic bottles properly,” the organizations concluded.
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