HOTREC Wants Single-use and Reuse Systems in Packaging and Packaging Waste Law

HOTREC, the umbrella association of Hotels, Restaurants, Bars, Cafes and similar establishments in Europe, announced this week the launch of its new campaign highlighting the sector’s priorities with regard to the European Commission’s proposal on Packaging and Packaging Waste (PPWD).

Among others, HOTREC is calling for the coexistence of single-use and reuse systems in the regulation, noting that “establishments composing our industry are heterogeneous, whether in their location, customers’ profile, the offer of services, waste management patterns or recycling models”.

Additionally, the association is urging law makers to make sure the regulation is clear, practical for businesses, future-proof and flexible enough to mitigate ongoing and future crises.

“While the European Commission’s intent to prevent packaging waste goes in the right direction, its ambition to ban single-use packaging unilaterally and abruptly in HORECA is concerning,” it said in a statement.

Photo source: Eurostat / Hakim-Graphy, Shutterstock

HOTREC goes on to add that the two systems – single and multiple-use packaging – should be preserved to:

• safeguard food safety and hygiene principles in HORECA as well as the health of our personnel and consumers
• limit unintended negative externalities such as economic, climate and environmental harms
• take into consideration the heterogeneous nature of the hospitality industry, seasonality, national specificities, and consumer behaviors
• appreciate the nature of the sector: a service-centered industry aiming to create positive experiences and provide the best options and choices to its customers
• allow the use of disposable packaging in HORECA while eating under special circumstances such as during health crisis, disruption of supply chains or when this is the most environmental and climate-friendly alternative

• prioritize small HORECA operators not capable of embracing integrated re-use systems due to a lack of finances, space, resources, time and staff.
• consider the context in which the hospitality industry is operating while dealing with the economic crisis, the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic and unprecedented labor shortages
• take into account markets in the EU where the industry has massively invested in recycling and would welcome higher recycled targets.

As part of the European Green Deal, the Commission put forward a revision of the PPWD with the aim to ensure that all packaging is reusable or recyclable in an economically feasible way by 2030. The law also includes measures to tackle over-packaging and reduce packaging waste.