EU Proposes New Legislation for Food Contact Recycled Plastics

The EU has informed the WTO of its intention to replace its legislation on food contact recycled plastics. The new law would enter into force in July 2022.

On December 7, 2021, the World Trade Organization (WTO) announced a draft regulation from the European Union (EU) on its intention to set out new rules forfood contact recycled plastics. The draft legislation, attached to WTO document 21-9180 and notified under G/SPS/N/EU/524, contains several important requirements. It:

● Clarifies the scope of recycled plastic materials and articles and their origin

● Sets rules for placing food contact recycled plastics on the market, the development and operation of recycling processes to manufacture food contact recycled plastics, as well as the use of food contact recycled plastics and food contact plastics which are intended to be recycled

● Sets out the requirements for suitable recycling technologies

● Requires recycled plastic materials and articles to conform to a set of criteria when they are placed on the market. This includes compositional requirements and requirements under Chapters II and V to Regulation (EU) 10/2011 ‘Food Contact Plastics’ (consolidated version to September 2020) – those rules do not apply to potential residual incidental contamination present in recycled plastic materials and articles

● Details the requirements for documentation, instruction and labeling

● Describes the requisites for waste management operators, including requirements for:

● Waste collection

● Decontamination

● Post-processing and use of recycled plastics

● Operation of recycling schemes

● Specifies the criteria for developing and listing of novel recycling technologies

● Defines the procedures for the authorization of individual recycling processes

● Requires recyclers to provide a declaration of compliance (DoC, Part A of Annex III to draft regulation)

If adopted, the draft regulation will repeal Regulation (EC) 282/2008 ‘Food Contact Recycled Plastics’ (consolidated version to October 2015).

According to the WTO notification, it is proposed that the draft regulation is:

● Adopted on June 15, 2022

● Published in the Official Journal of the EU (OJEU) on June 30, 2022

● Brought into force on July 20, 2022 (20 days from publication in the OJEU) 

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