There’s no other way to put it: Europeans consume packaging like nobody else. In recent years, packaging waste has grown faster than the EU’s economy and population, exceeding 85 million tonnes (as a comparison, the great pyramid of Gizeh is around 5 million tonnes), and 40% of the plastic we use in Europe is for packaging. This equals the CO2 production of a small to medium-sized EU country according to the Commission’s own estimates.
While recognising the importance of and need for well-designed packaging, both the legislation and AGC ARG’s sustainability ambitions are aiming towards a greener future, encouraging us to rethink our practices and foresee the challenges to come.
As per the EU Commission’s “Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive (PPWD)”, by the end of 2025, 65% of all packaging waste is to be recycled, with different targets for different materials such as plastic (50% recycled by 2025) or wood (25% recycled by 2025). However, the legislation also has a broader approach: by regulating both the downstream and upstream aspects of the packaging lifecycle, the EU is combatting the issue of over-packaging. In short: less packaging at the outset means less packaging to recycle.
Starting in 2021, as a prelude to this, all EU States have had to pay a mandatory fee per kilo for all non-recycled plastic packaging waste to the EU and, by doing so, participate in the funding of EU institutions, including the PPWD policy. As a result, the various States are being strongly encouraged to adopt this new legislation at the national level, which affects all aspects of our business since the financial burden will be transferred to the customers.
At AGC, we are deeply committed to sustainability across our entire production process, from the individual plastic protection of the windscreens you order to the wooden or cardboard crates used for transportation. The stakes are high, and we have already implemented several measures to address this.
We are actively working to eliminate single-use plastics wherever possible and have already chosen more sustainable separators for our packaging. Additionally, our wooden crates are reused to their maximum extent, and we are optimising the filling rates of our crates and trucks to reduce our environmental impact further.
The key elements and points for attention highlighted by the regulations have already been well integrated into our processes. We are closely monitoring the situation to ensure that we remain compliant with, and ideally ahead of, regulatory requirements.
Additionally, AGC works together closely with our customers to address important issues such as the return and reuse of wooden crates, thereby reducing unnecessary packaging waste. This partnership benefits everyone involved: the customer, AGC, and most importantly, the planet.