Building on natural mineral and spring water producers’ longstanding sustainable resource management and environment protection, our members are committed to achieving full circularity for their packaging. Beverage packaging already achieves higher than average recycling rates, including those for PET bottles, which is the most recycled form of plastic packaging in the EU. It will require a collaborative effort between all value-chain actors to reach our shared ambitions for Europe. We applaud the Commission’s Circular Plastics Alliance initiative in that respect.
EFBW Sustainability Director, Ermis Panagiotopoulos, adds: “Practices need to be mainstreamed in all EU countries, especially for waste collection and recycling. Our industry uses PET, glass or aluminum, which are all fully recyclable, but in order to make our packaging fully circular, we need a consistent supply of high-quality, food contact, recycled material. To ensure the high quantity and quality of recycled PET for instance, separate collection is essential. This can occur either via existing well-performing curbside collection or by the introduction of well-designed Deposit Refund Systems.”
