The National Green Tribunal has directed the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to finalise the draft Food Safety and Standards (Packaging) Amendment Regulations, 2020 within three months.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel said the issue of use of plastic bottles and multi layered plastic packages for packaging of carbonated soft drinks, liquor and other items also needs to be further considered by the concerned authorities.

"The FSSAI may finalise the draft regulations as far as possible within three months which may be enforced and monitored through a credible monitoring mechanism," the bench said.

The regulations relate to specific migration limits of Antinomy and Phthalic acid, Bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) and Packaging of Drinking Water.

The NGT was hearing a petition filed by NGO Him Jagriti Uttaranchal Welfare Society seeking ban on the use of plastic bottle and multi-layered/plastic packages /pet bottles.

Use of plastics, including polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles and multi-layered packs such as Tetra Packs, has an adverse impact on health and environment, the plea said, adding that it also results in increase in plastic waste.

The Directorate General Of Health Services told the NGT that the Ministry of Health has published draft rules for prohibition of use of Polyethylene Teraphthalate or plastic containers in liquid oral formulations for primary packaging of drug formulations for pediatric use, geriatric use and for use in case of pregnant women and women of reproductive age group.

With respect to standards of plastic containers and primary packaging of pharmaceuticals, all containers and closures intended for use shall comply with the Pharmacopeia (systems of medicines which are officially recognised by the parties,) and other specified requirements.

"Suitable sample sizes, specifications, test methods, cleaning procedures and sterilization procedures, shall be used to assure that containers, closures and other component parts of drug packages are suitable and are not reactive, additive, adsorptive or leachable or presents the risk of toxicity to an extent that significantly affects the quality or purity of the drug.

"No second hand or used containers and closures shall be used. Pharmaceutical manufacturers are required to follow the Standards laid down in Indian Pharmacopoeia," the tribunal was informed.

The tribunal said that in view of the revision of the Pharmacopeia, the adverse health effect of plastic packaging has been regulated to an extent.

"The matter being required to be primarily dealt with by the concerned Executive authorities, we do not consider it necessary to pass any further order in exercise of jurisdiction under Sections 14 and 15 of the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010," the bench said.

However, it is necessary to ensure that compliance of the norms is duly monitored at appropriate level of the Health Ministry to safeguard the health of the citizens, the tribunal said.

BOPET Films Europe vice chair Michael Kreuter comments: “We cannot achieve these goals in isolation, and through this Vita Nova initiative we hope to pull together knowledge from across the value chain to improve the circularity of flexible packaging.”

It is the group’s view that mono PET packaging structures have the potential to deliver on all 4 European Plastic Pact targets and enable retailers and brand owners to meet their sustainability pledges.

According to Vita Nova, replacing mixed plastic flexible packaging with mono PET solutions would enable better recyclability, improve resource-efficiency and lead to greenhouse gas emission reductions.

Like the majority of flexible packaging materials, PET-films are not currently sorted and recycled in Europe at scale. Vita Nova aims to address this.

Steven Davies, Chair of BOPET films Europe, says: “It’s a sad fact that currently virtually all flexible packaging is being incinerated. Vita Nova comes from the Latin for ‘new life’, and this is exactly what we are trying to give to flexible packaging by developing a model for true closed-loop recycling.

Mono PET structures offer the packaging industry a best-in-class option in terms of material usage and recycling processes, and are a key element if the industry is to hit the collective goals we have signed up to by 2025.”

The ultimate aim of the Vita Nova initiative is to ensure that flexible PET packaging structures reach their full potential as circular materials – keeping them in the economy and out of incinerators.

Over the next 12 months, the consortium aims to develop and present material redesign options for moving from mixed plastics to mono PET, quality sorting guidelines, and a recycling pathway for PET films, considering both mechanical and monomer recycling.

In addition, the group will reveal design for recycling guidelines for mono PET packaging, as well as launching research into viable end markets for mechanically recycled flexible PET and attempting to prove a closed-loop recycling process for monomer recycling.

Customers greatly appreciate this and benefit several times over. Whether the product is sticky or greasy, warm or deep-frozen, pressure-sensitive or fragile – all the experience gained from the construction of hundreds of pick & place machines is incorporated into the design of the systems. As a result, the pick & place machines from Schubert have gained such a high degree of flexibility over the years that they can now be used to process practically any product. Gentle product handling and excellent packaging quality are hallmarks of Schubert’s flexible picker lines and hold true to the packaging of food, confectionery, beverages, cosmetics or pharmaceuticals. Plastic or cardboard trays? Both can be used in the same pick & place machine from Schubert! Always reliably packaged and, thanks to the ingenious interplay between proven mechanics and intelligent Schubert control, with exceptionally high availabilities of up to 99 per cent.

“Our support for a more sustainable future for plastics is clear,” said Dirk Van de Put, chairman and CEO at Mondelēz International. “We’re already one of the most efficient users of plastic packaging in the consumer goods space and we’ve made significant strides to reduce plastic packaging use, substitute plastics for other materials, and design for recyclability.”

These commitments build on the company’s existing 2025 goals to use 5% recycled content by weight across its plastic packaging and to design all packaging for recyclability, a goal Mondelēz says it is on track to achieve with 94% of packaging reportedly already designed to be recycled.

The company says that it currently invests over $30 million a year in technology, resources, and recycling infrastructure and anticipates an acceleration in this investment over time. In total, between 2019 and 2025, Mondelēz International anticipates spending approximately $300 million on projects related to sustainability in plastics.

It is the view of the company that recycling infrastructure improvements, such as those proposed under Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes, are needed globally, particularly for flexible films.

Commenting on this, Christine Montenegro McGrath, vice president and chief of impact, says: “Increasing recyclability of materials is a great start, but we need actual recycling rates of various materials to increase.

“Compared to rigid plastics like PET, flexible plastic films, like the flow wraps we use on our snacks, are still difficult to collect, sort and reprocess economically, because the infrastructure doesn’t exist yet for this to be done at scale. We are committed to playing our part to improve this, including partnering with stakeholders across sectors to drive action to combat plastics pollution.”

Mondelēz International is an active participant in the Consumer Goods Forum Plastic Coalition of Action; the Business Call for a Global UN Treaty on Plastics Pollution; the U.S. Plastics Pact; the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy Global Commitment; the New Plastics Economy Initiative; the European CEFLEX initiative; the UK Plastics Pact and the UK Flexible Plastic Fund (formerly known as EPPIC); and the Australia/New Zealand Plastics Pact, among others.

Mondelēz International reports on the progress it is making against its environment, social sustainability and governance commitments, strategies, and goals in the Snacking Made Right Report, which is published annually in early May.

“Our goal is that beverage packaging achieves full circularity and is recognised as a resource in a circular economy: it has value, is recyclable, is collected and used as recycled content,” said Ian Ellington, UNESDA president and SVP and Chief Category Officer, PepsiCo Europe. “We believe that packaging is a resource that should never be wasted and are taking numerous actions to achieve full circularity and support the European Commission’s agenda of accelerating the transition towards a green economy.”

A circular packaging is designed to contain recycled content, is recyclable and possibly also reusable; it is therefore part of a circular economy where the waste management and recycling infrastructure allows it to be widely collected, recycled and reused.

UNESDA says its members will deliver their Vision through these three equal pillars of circularity:

Collect: striving to achieve closed-loop collection of beverage packaging supporting:

Creation of closed-loop beverage packaging collection and recycling systems to accelerate achievement of the target of at least 90% collection of all its packaging by 2030[3]
Wider introduction of well-designed Deposit Return Schemes (DRS) for PET, aluminium cans and other materials (depending on the local situation) when 90% collection by existing Extended Producer Responsibility systems is not achievable.
Recycle: using only packaging that is circular by design and boosting uptake of rPET in beverage packaging to deliver:

By 2025:
Beverage packaging (plastic, metal, glass) will be 100% recyclable
All soft drinks PET bottles will contain a minimum average of 50% rPET
By 2030: The ambition is for PET bottles to be made from 100% recycled and/or renewable material if technically and economically feasible – thereby moving away from fossil fuel sources.
Reduce and reuse: reducing the sector’s packaging footprint and increasing the use of refillable packaging:

Aiming to use more refillable packaging by 2030 compared with 2020[4]
Studying the best environmental and economic pathway to increase use of refillable models.
Innovation is at the heart of circularity and the sector will continue investing in recycling technologies – including enhanced recycling – to improve their efficiency and financial performance. By combining mechanically recycled PET, enhanced recycled PET and renewable PET it is possible to reduce the carbon footprint of packaging and deliver products in a safe and sustainable packaging.

Europe’s soft drinks industry says it fully supports the EU ambition of making Europe the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050 and building a European circular economy – including packaging circularity.

To deliver its Vision, the sector will need coherent support from EU authorities and national governments including:

long-term perspective and legal certainty as well as protecting the single market;
a well-functioning secondary raw materials market that gives the soft drinks sector access to sufficient high quality rPET in order to meet its obligations under EU law, without compromising on safety standards and avoiding downcycling;
increased investment in waste management and recycling infrastructure;
an EU framework enabling innovative recycling technologies;
EU minimum requirements for new DRS across Europe
clear definitions of recyclability that foster innovation and investment.
“Our Circular Packaging Vision 2030 demonstrates that Europe’s soft drinks industry wants to continue to be a part of the solution,” concluded Ellington. “Circularity works and we are ready to make long-term investments in supporting and accompanying the transition to ensure that none of our packaging ends up as litter.”