Commercial Information Circulars

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Ref : EIC 230/2/12

11 April 2008

Dear Sirs,

Commercial Information Circular No. 220/2008

European Union (EU)* : Regulation on Recycled Plastic Materials and Articles Intended to Come Into Contact with Foods

Further to Commercial Information Circular No. 28/2007 of 11 January 2007, the European Commission (the Commission) has adopted a Regulation on recycled plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact with food. Details are set out in Commission Regulation (EC) No. 282/2008 (the Regulation). The Regulation can be accessed through the following link :
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2008:086:0009:0018:EN:PDF

DETAILS

2. The Regulation sets out the requirements for recycled plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact with foodstuffs. Recycled plastic materials and articles shall only be placed on the market if the recycled plastic is obtained from an authorised recycling process. In order to be authorised, the recycling process should comply with certain conditions. These conditions and the application procedures to obtain the authorisation are set out in Article 4 and Articles 5 - 6 of the Regulation respectively. The Commission shall establish and maintain a Community register of authorised recycling processes and make it available to the public.

3. The authorised recycling process should also be managed by an appropriate quality assurance system. In this regard, Regulation (EC) No. 2023/2006 concerning the good manufacturing practice is revised accordingly to include the specific requirements for the quality assurance system for plastic recycling process. Details are set out in Annex II to the Regulation.

4. Voluntary self-declaration of the recycled content in the plastic materials and articles shall follow the rules laid down in ISO 14021:1999 or equivalent. Apart from the written declaration of compliance for plastic materials and articles as already set out in Directive 2002/72/EC, additional written declaration of compliance for recycled plastic materials and articles and recycled plastic is required. Details are set out in Annex I to the Regulation.

5. The following transitional measures are introduced:

   1. Recycled plastic from a recycling process already in place on 17 April 2008, for which authorisation is refused or for which no valid application has been submitted :

      Such recycled plastic shall be permitted until six months after the adoption of the Decisions granting or refusing the authorisation of the recycling processes;

   2. Recycled plastic materials and articles containing recycled plastic from a recycling process already in place on 17 April 2008, for which authorisation is refused or for which no valid application has been submitted :

      Such recycled plastic materials and articles shall be permitted until exhaustion of stocks.

6. The Regulation shall not apply to the following recycled plastics and articles, provided that they have been manufactured according to good manufacturing practice as laid down in Regulation (EC) No 2023/2006 :

   1. recycled plastic materials and articles made from monomers and starting substances, derived from chemical depolymerisation of plastic materials and articles;

   2. recycled plastic materials and articles made from unused plastic production offcuts and/or process scraps, that are recycled within the manufacturing site or are used at another site; and

   3. recycled plastic materials and articles in which the recycled plastic is used behind a plastic functional barrier.

ENQUIRIES

7. For enquiries concerning the contents of this circular, please contact the undersigned at telephone number 2398 5684.

Yours faithfully,


(Cyrus NG)
for Director-General of Trade and Industry

* The EU includes Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.