EU packaging reg expected to come into force on time

The UK Director of the industry analysts hailed the decision to approve what is known as the Plastics Implementation Measure (PIM) by the Council of Ministers as a “positive step” and said he now expected the regulation to be adopted on schedule on 1 May, 2011.

The controversy surrounding the chemical bisphenol A (BPA) that had threatened to delay implementation of the measure looks now to have receded in the aftermath of the decision by Brussels to impose a ban on the substance in polycarbonate baby bottles, he said.

“I don't think the European Parliament will now object,”​ added Kernoghan. “There may have been objections from ​Denmark​ or ​France​, but the EC's decision to (unnecessarily) ban the use of Bisphenol A in baby feeding bottles makes this unlikely.”​

What the PIM changes​

Industry expert Kernoghan explained regulation is significant as it brings all the current EU directives and regulations on plastics together in a single document.

“The current version is less radical than may have been expected, but still makes significant changes to bring EU legislation into line with current scientific understanding,”​ he said.

But he stressed that draft regulation will herald in a raft of changes including:

Extending the compositional requirements of plastics regulations to the plastic layers in multi-material multi-layer laminates (MMMLL). The non-plastic levels will be subject to national law;

More to follow​​