The proposed EU packaging regulation would make strawberry baskets and even ready-made bagged salad disappear from supermarket shelves, according to Coldiretti. She thus sounded yet another (false) alarm ‘in unified networks’ from the stage of Tuttofood in Milan on May 8, 2023.
Single-use food packaging, restrictions and bans
Coldiretti’s controversy is directed at the proposed EU regulation that aspires to promote the reduction, reuse and recycling of packaging. The draft PPWR, Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, which as it turned out has been met with criticism from Italy.
In fact, the proposed PPWR includes some restrictions on the use of packaging which include a number of prohibitions, including that of using single-use packaging to hold fresh fruits and vegetables in quantities less than 1.5 kg (PPWR, Article 22, Annex V).
Strawberry baskets and bagged salads, no ban
Contrary to Coldiretti’s assertions, the ban under consideration does not apply to fresh fruits and vegetables that are placed in single-use packaging in the face of ‘demonstrated need to avoid loss of water or turgidity, microbiological hazards, or shocks.’ And therefore:
– strawberry baskets are excluded from the ban, precisely because they are needed to protect the fruit from shocks that would cause food waste,
– washed and bagged salads (fourth range) are excluded from the ban because they are ready-to-eat and consequently exposed to microbiological risk,
– The same applies to washed, cut and packaged fruit (fifth range) for obvious food safety requirements.
Three carrots in a tray
Instead, the restrictions in the PPWR proposal are intended to put an end to the misuse of packaging to wrap and sell small quantities of fresh fruits and vegetables for no reason whatsoever.
The plastic trays that hold three carrots or a couple of fennels, the plastic nets for 5 lemons or 3 garlic bulbs, the trays for green beans. Aberrations that have grown out of all proportion in recent decades in pursuit of the myth of ease of purchase.
Farmers should be the first to be concerned about the indiscriminate use of plastics, for two simple reasons:
– the price recognized to farmers does not change if carrots or fennel are put in a useless tray,
– the microplastics that also result from these abuses also contaminate water and soils to the extent that they seep into fruits and vegetables, as seen.
The issue of organic fruit and vegetables
Foregoing packaging for small quantities of fruit and vegetables, on the other hand, can become a serious problem for organic produce sales, as IFOAM’s leading expert Roberto Pinton explains.
In fact, organic food can only be sold in bulk at certified organic outlets. Unless certified stores and supermarkets are able to clearly distinguish organic from conventional products.
To prevent the risk of witnessing a collapse in sales of organic fruits and vegetables in non-certified stores is therefore being reasoned about innovative solutions, among which laser beam fruit marking, already in use since 2016 in Passi countries (Nature & More) and then also in Germany (EcoMark).
Packaging destined to burn in cement plants
‘Banning small packaging makes sense. Strawberry trays, to stay with the example, are difficult to recycle because they are so light. They do not survive the screening processes for recycling; they become waste confetti. Sure, they have high energy potential, useful for powering cement factories or thermal power plants, at least until the energy is all from renewables‘, says Gianluca Bertazzoli of HUB15, a consultant in environmental, waste management and extended producer responsibility(EPR).
‘Eliminating small packaging is not a small problem, it is clear. But there is little we can do if we want to affect the share of non-recyclable packaging, typically made of plastic. The problem, however, is broader. There is much discontent in Italy with this proposed regulation, because it is written ignoring the specifics of the objectively successful Italian model‘. Except precisely to prove unsustainable.
Italic opposition from Italian bioplastics and recycling industries
Moreover, Italic opposition to the PPWR proposal is already known and comes from the bioplastics and recycling industries. And it was echoed in a resolution passed in the Senate 4th Standing Committee on EU Policy on April 19, 2023, based on stakeholder hearings.
The cahier de doléances once again invokes ‘national sovereignty’ over a matter, environmental protection, which is instead the subject of European regulation. Bioplastics, after all, may have far more useful applications than the mundane consumption pattern of single-use packaging.
Marta Strinati and Dario Dongo
Professional journalist since January 1995, he has worked for newspapers (Il Messaggero, Paese Sera, La Stampa) and periodicals (NumeroUno, Il Salvagente). She is the author of journalistic surveys on food, she has published the book "Reading labels to know what we eat".
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
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