Commission’s new regulation on plastic materials for food use
On 15 September 2022, the European Commission (EC) adopted a Regulation titled Document C(2022)6146 (not yet published in the official journal of the European Union), establishing rules for plastic materials originating from waste that are intended for market placement, the development of recycling technology for such use, and how to recycle plastics that contacted foods.
This Commission’s Regulation is based on EU Regulation 1935/2004 on materials and articles intended to have contact with food, also called the “food contact” regulation.
This new Commission Regulation aims to replace former EC Regulation 282/2008 with new rules covering all existing and future plastic recycling technologies.
The regulation thus declares recycling technology acceptable if it is (i) microbiologically safe and (ii) capable of being recycled into plastic materials and articles. It also establishes the following measures:
1) it requires plastic technologies to be distinguished by type, physical and chemical makeup, and intended use.
2) it requires constructing locations and recycling processes for market placement.
3) it sets documentation and labeling conditions, such as the requirement to visibly display the registry number, the weight of recycled content, and the maximum weight of acceptable recycled content.
4) it issues requirements for collection from food business waste and pre-processing methods.
5) it requires decontamination installations being one facility that corresponds to the recycling processes applied.
6) it states that food business operators are responsible for communicating new recycling instructions to customers or other operators.
7) it establishes a required15-day notice to the local authority about any recycling schemes and conditions and for the project managers to monitor.
8) it requires decontamination installations to monitor average contamination levels using robust sampling strategies of plastic before and after the process.
9) it gives authority to the Commission to assess novel decontamination technologies when sufficient data is collected or to re-asses the conditions of market-acceptable plastics.
