Report for Spain

On January 1 this year, regulation RD 1055/2022 on packaging and packaging waste - which comes from EU Directive 2018/852 - entered force for the Spanish market. This regulates packaging and packaging waste throughout its entire life-cycle with the aim of preventing and reducing its impact on the environment, emphasising increased recovery of materials in terms of both content and quality so as to reduce landfilling and incineration.

In accordance with the “polluter pays” principle, a series of measures has been designed around the extended producer responsibility principle, including ecodesign whereby the design of a product must take into account its life-cycle to achieve a reduction in environmental impact and in generation of waste, as well as to ensure its subsequent recovery and elimination of packaging waste without compromising safety and hygiene.

The measures also include: requirements on the composition of packaging, the nature of reusable and recoverable packaging and recyclable packaging; marking and information obligations regarding the components of the packaging and its recyclability; and registration in the Registry of Product Producers.

The requirements also extend to: deposit and return systems for reusable packaging, and organising and financing the management of waste at the end of its useful life in accordance with the “polluter pays” principle either through an individual or a collective system; financial guarantees for the cost of waste management; establishment of a control, inspection and sanctioning regime to ensure compliance with packaging management; and the quantification and periodic characterisation of incoming and outgoing packaging waste, as well as destinations for the recovery or elimination of outgoing packaging waste.

This regulation aims to satisfy European recyclability objectives in which the intention is to achieve 65% circularity and net-zero emissions by 2025. In the EU, however, we are facing a situation of de-industrialisation and have become increasingly dependent on plastic imports from countries with less strict regulations. This is resulting in European plastics recycling companies losing competitiveness at the global level.