More ways through reuse: Dr Jan Klingele is concerned about the planned reusable quotas for transport packaging in the EU

However, with the rigid quotas for reusable solutions for certain transport packaging, the EU is missing these targets, explains Dr Jan Klingele, Managing Director of the Klingele Paper & Packaging Group:

"We support the objectives of the EU regulation and, as a forward-looking company, we are already implementing many measures to achieve an ever-improving eco-balance. However, generalised reusable quotas often do not lead to the best ecological result. In the case of the PPWR, the envisaged reusable quotas even jeopardise the environmental targets that have been set.

According to a study by the Gesellschaft für Verpackungsmarktforschung (GVM) from June 2023, instead of using less plastic, an additional 114 kilotonnes of reusable packaging would be produced each year. In addition, a further 285 kilotonnes would have to be purchased in the first year to set up the quota-based reusable system. In my opinion, this means that we inevitably run the risk of releasing more plastic and microplastics into our habitats.

Reusable packaging is also limited to certain standard formats, which leads to an increase in empty space in the packaging and therefore in the supply chains. As a result, we are leveraging one of the strengths of the corrugated cardboard industry: producing customised packaging whose paper fibres can be recycled over twenty-five times and can then be easily disposed of as waste paper. Combined with the additional routes for cleaning and returning reusable packaging, we will see even more lorry traffic on the roads. According to the above-mentioned study, transport kilometres will even increase by 200 percent by 2040.

We are therefore against blanket quotas and instead call for the preservation of functioning recycling systems that have proven their worth."