Recycling: the Trojan Horse for increased paper packaging

To move away from single-use plastics, an epic false solution is being promoted by paper and packaging industry. This report addresses some of the key aspects to consider when following the upcoming EU packaging regulations. The general goal of all packaging should be to reduce where possible and prefer reuse.

However, the paper packaging industry disregards the negative impacts of increased material use and waste generation and try to impress on the fact of high recycling rate of paper compared to other packaging materials. In reality there is a low rate of single-use paper food packaging recycling (due to contamination by food and mixed materials that are difficult to recycle). The industry claims that paper in the EU comprises roughly 50% recycled material, although there is no standardised system for measuring this and the real figure is likely to be lower. This is a must read for all businesses to avoid making the mistake to fall into the paper packaging trap just as happened with biodegradable containers some years prior.