The European Organisation for Packaging and the Environment (Europen) has published a report arguing that moves by EU governments to impose more environmental taxes on packaging are unnecessary and penalise companies.
The Europen director, Julian Carroll urged governments to "stop hiding tax-raising measures behind environmental rhetoric."
He said that in 2004, the most recent year for which a complete set of official data is available, the overall recovery rate in the 15 original member states was 68%. The overall recycling rate was 56% and that these figures go "well beyond" the minimum rates that the EU's Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive prescribed for 2001.
The directive requires that recovery rates should be at 50% of all packaging and the recycling rate at 20%. Carroll also argues that continued innovation by packaged goods companies has meant that while gross domestic product (GDP) and packaging tonnage in the EU-15 grew by 17% between 1997 and 2004, the amount of packaging waste going to final disposal actually fell by 21% in the same period, thanks to increased recycling.
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