Changes from plenary report to adopted text

Article 38 – paragraph 1 a (new): 1a. Each Member State shall reduce the plastic packaging waste generated per capita, as compared to the plastic packaging waste generated per capita in 2018 as reported to the Commission in accordance with Commission Decision 2005/270/EC, by: / (a) 10 % by 2030; / (b) 15 % by 2035; / (c) 20 % by 2040.

Article 38 – paragraph 1 b (new): 1b. Without prejudice to paragraphs 1 and 1a, Member States that have established a dual system for the management of packaging waste, one system for household packaging waste and the other for industrial and commercial packaging waste, may have the opportunity to retain their specificity.

Article 38 – paragraph 2: 2. Member States shall implement and take the necessary additional sustainability measures to achieve an ambitious and sustained reduction of the packaging waste generated per capita, in line with the overall objectives of the Union’s waste policy, in particular waste prevention and in order to reach the targets set out in this Article.

Article 38 – paragraph 2 a (new): 2a. For the purpose of paragraph 2, Member States shall ensure that customers in restaurants, canteens, bars, cafés and catering services may request to be served tap water for free or for a low service fee.

Article 38 – paragraph 3: 3. For the purpose of paragraph 2, Member States may introduce measures that may include, but are not limited to, the use of economic instruments and other measures to provide incentives for the application of the waste hierarchy, such as measures referred to in Annexes IV and IVa to Directive 2008/98/EC, or other appropriate instruments and measures, including incentives through extended producer responsibility schemes and requirements on producers or producer responsibility organisations to adopt waste prevention plans. Such measures shall be proportionate and non-discriminatory and be designed so as to avoid barriers to trade or distortions of competition in conformity with the Treaty and with Article 4 of this Regulation.

Article 38 – paragraph 4: 4. By [OP: Please insert the date = 5 years after the date of entry into force of this Regulation], the Commission shall review the targets laid down in paragraphs 1 and 1a and assess the need to include specific targets for paper and cardboard, glass, metal and composite material. To that end, the Commission shall submit a report to the European Parliament and to the Council, accompanied, if the Commission finds it appropriate, by a legislative proposal.

Article 39 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 2: The register shall provide links to other national registers of producers’ websites to facilitate, in all Member States, registration of producers or authorised representatives for the extended producer responsibility. The register shall be easily accessible and free of charge to the public online.

Article 39 – paragraph 2: 2. Producers shall be obliged to register in the register referred to in paragraph 1. They shall, to that end, submit an application for registration in each Member State where they make packaging available on the market for the first time. Where a producer has appointed a producer responsibility organisation as referred to in Article 41(1), the obligations set out in this Article shall be met by that organisation. Micro enterprises shall be exempt from the obligations of this paragraph, unless they have appointed a producer responsibility organisation.

Article 39 – paragraph 4: 4. Producers shall not make available packaging on the market, if they or, where applicable, in accordance with Article 40, their authorised representatives for the extended producer responsibility, are not registered in such Member State.

Article 39 – paragraph 6: 6. Where an authorised representative for the extended producer responsibility represents more than one producer, it shall in addition to the information to be provided pursuant to paragraph 5, provide the name and the contact details of each one of the represented producers separately.

Article 39 – paragraph 10: 10. The information in the register of producers shall be publicly accessible. Member States shall ensure that fulfilment service providers and providers of online platforms allowing consumers to conclude distance contracts with producers are granted access, including online access, free of charge, to the information in the register, including through digital register extracts. However, the confidentiality of commercially sensitive information in conformity with the relevant Union and national law shall be preserved. The list of registered producers shall be machine readable, sortable and searchable, respecting open standards for third party use.

Article 40 – paragraph 1: 1. Producers shall have extended producer responsibility under the schemes established in accordance with Articles 8 and 8a of Directive 2008/98/EC and with this Section for the packaging that they make available on the market for the first time within the territory of a Member State.

Article 40 – paragraph 2: 2. A producer shall appoint, by written mandate, an authorised representative for the extended producer responsibility in each Member State other than the Member State where it is established where it makes packaging available for the first time.

Article 40 – paragraph 3 – introductory part: 3. Providers of online platforms falling under Section 4 of Chapter 3 of Regulation (EU) No 2022/2065, allowing consumers to conclude distance contracts with producers, as well as fulfilment service providers, shall be required to comply with the extended producer responsibility requirements referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 of this Article, unless they can prove that producers offering packaging to consumers located in the Union, comply with those requirements by obtaining:

Article 40 – paragraph 3 – point b: (b) information on compliance with the extended producer responsibility requirements referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 of this article in the Member State where the consumer is located.

Article 40 – paragraph 3 – subparagraph 1 a (new): Where producers sell their products via the online marketplace and are not registered in accordance with Article 39(2), the online marketplace in which the products are offered for sale may fulfil the obligations under Article 39(7) in respect of such producers collectively.

Article 40 – paragraph 3 a (new): 3a. Upon receiving the information referred to paragraph 3 and prior to allowing the producer concerned to use its services, the provider of online platforms and fulfilment service providers shall assess whether the information referred to in point (a) and (b) is reliable and complete.

Article 40 – paragraph 3 b (new): 3b. Member States shall ensure that the producers cover the costs pursuant to the extended producer responsibility provisions in Directives 2008/98/EC and 94/62/EC and, insofar as not already included, cover at least the costs of waste collection for those products that are discarded in public collection systems, including the infrastructure and its operation, and the subsequent transport and treatment of that waste. / The costs to be covered shall be established in a transparent and in a cost-efficient way. The costs of cleaning up litter shall be limited to activities undertaken by public authorities or on their behalf. The calculation methodology shall be developed in a way that allows for the costs of cleaning up litter to be established in a proportionate way on the basis of the packaging formats that are more prone to be littered or not separately collected.

Article 41 – paragraph 2: 2. Where, in the territory of a Member State, multiple producer responsibility organisations are authorised to fulfil extended producer responsibility obligations on behalf of producers, the Member State shall ensure that the producer responsibility organisations and producers that have not entrusted a producer responsibility organisation, when taken together, cover the whole territory of the Member State as regards the activities in accordance with Articles 42(3), 43 and 44. Member States shall entrust the competent authority, or appoint an independent third party, to oversee that producer responsibility organisations fulfil their obligations in a coordinated manner.

Article 42 – paragraph 3 – point b: (b) the measures put in place by the producer or producer responsibility organisation are sufficient to allow for the return, collection, transport and treatment of all packaging waste in accordance with Article 43(1) and (2) and Article 44, free of charge, with a frequency proportionate to the area and volume covered, of packaging waste with regard to the amount and types of packaging made available on the market for the first time within the territory of a Member State by that producer or producers on whose behalf the producer responsibility organisation acts;

Article 43 – paragraph 1: 1. Member States shall ensure that systems and infrastructures are set up to provide for the return and separate collection of all packaging waste from the end users in order to ensure that it is treated in accordance with Articles 4, 10 and 13 of Directive 2008/98/EC, and to facilitate its preparation for re-use and high quality recycling.

Article 43 – paragraph 1 a (new): 1a. In order to facilitate high quality recycling, Member States shall ensure that a system is in place to provide safe and equitable access to recycled materials for use in applications where the distinct quality of the recycled material is preserved or recovered in such a way that it can be recycled further and used in the same way and for a similar application, with minimal loss of quantity, quality or function.

Article 43 – paragraph 2: 2. Member States may allow derogations from the return and separate waste collection obligation in paragraph 1 for certain types of waste provided that collecting packaging or fractions of such packaging waste together or together with other waste does not affect the capacity of such packaging or fractions of packaging waste to undergo preparing for re-use, recycling or other recovery operations in accordance with Articles 4 and 13 of Directive 2008/98/EC and generates output from those operations which is of comparable quality to that achieved through separate collection.

Article 43 – paragraph 3 – point c a (new): (ca) be open to data access, regarding the reporting in weight and cost of management of packaging waste flows, up to date and provided by means of: / (i) a website or other means of electronic communication, in the official language of the concerned Member State; / (ii) public reports in the official language of the Member State concerned. / Point (ca) shall be without prejudice to commercially sensitive information or data protection laws.

Article 43 – paragraph 3 a (new): 3a. By 1 January 2029, Member States shall ensure that, in public spaces, sufficient separate collection systems are set up for the different fractions of packaging waste materials.

Article 45 – paragraph 2 – point c: (c) requirements on manufacturers and final distributors to make available in reusable packaging within a system for re-use or through refill a certain percentage of other products than those covered by targets laid down in Article 26 on the condition that this does not lead to distortions on the internal market or trade barriers for products from other Member States.

Article 45 – paragraph 2 a (new): 2a. The Commission shall request European standardisation organisations the development of voluntary standards for reusable packaging, with the aim of promoting the characteristics needed for the deployment of well-designed re-use systems. Such standards shall address the design, labelling, cleaning, and traceability of reusable packaging, among other aspects. The Commission shall support the development and dissemination of such standards.

Article 45 – paragraph 2 b (new): 2b. Member States shall ensure that extended producer responsibility schemes and deposit systems dedicate a minimum share of their budget to financing reduction and prevention actions and re-use infrastructure for the deployment of re-use system.

Article 46 – paragraph 2 – introductory part: 2. Without prejudice to paragraph 1, point (a), and recognising the different starting point of each Member State in relation to the specific target defined for each material, a Member State, may postpone the deadlines set out in paragraph 1, points (b) (i) to (vi), by up to 5 years, under the following conditions:

Article 47 – paragraph 5: deleted

Article 47 – paragraph 9: 9. The amount of packaging waste materials that have ceased to be waste as a result of a recovery operation by which waste materials are reprocessed into products, materials or substances either for the original or other purposes may be counted as recycled. However, end-of-waste materials to be used as fuels or other means to generate energy, or to be incinerated, backfilled or landfilled, shall not be counted as recycled.

Article 47 – paragraph 12: 12. Packaging waste exported from the Union shall be counted as recycled by the Member State in which it was collected only if the requirements set out in paragraph 3 are met and if, in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006, the exporter provides documentary evidence approved by the competent authority of destination that the shipment of waste complies with the requirements of that Regulation, including that the treatment of packaging waste outside the Union took place under conditions that are equivalent to the requirements of the relevant Union environmental law.

Article 49 – paragraph 1 – point f: (f) the composting properties and appropriate waste management options for compostable packaging, including information to consumers that compostable packaging that is compostable in industrially controlled conditions is not to be thrown in home compost or nature.

Article 50 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1 – point b: (b) the annual consumption of very lightweight plastic carrier bags, lightweight plastic carrier bags, thick plastic carrier bags, very thick plastic carrier bags and paper carrier bags per person, separately for each category;

Article 50 – paragraph 2 – introductory part: 2. Member States shall report for each calendar year data on:

Article 50 – paragraph 2 – point a: (a) the amounts of packaging placed on the market for each packaging type and material as listed in Table 1 of Annex II;

Article 50 – paragraph 2 – point b: (b) amounts of separately collected packaging waste for each packaging material as listed in Table 3 in the Annex XII;

Article 50 – paragraph 2 – point c: (c) the recycling rates of packaging waste as listed in Table 4 of Annex XII;

Article 51 – paragraph 2 a (new): 2a. The packaging databases shall be accessible to the wider public in an open format that can be machine-readable and ensures interoperability and re-use of data.