News
The Food Packaging Forum reports on recent developments across the food packaging and health field.
October 16, 2020
Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN) article reports on significant investments being made across the plastics supply chain to scale up chemical recycling technologies, growing skepticism from critics not convinced of the technologies’ viability and unwilling to support expanded use of plastics
Topics: chemical recycling
Reading time: 1 minute
October 15, 2020
European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) panel publishes assessment of styrene in plastic food contact materials, follows 2018 International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) conclusion labelling it as ‘probably carcinogenic’; calls for systematic review of genotoxicity, toxicokinetics, species differences to determine safety
Topics: styrene
Reading time: 1 minute
October 15, 2020
Ellen MacArthur Foundation, World Wildlife Fund, and Boston Consulting Group advocate United Nations (UN) members to establish global treaty; publish report detailing business case, launch call for industry partners to join effort
Reading time: 1 minute
October 14, 2020
European Commission (EC) publishes Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability; plans to ban PFAS for all non-essential uses, move towards grouping approach for regulation of all chemicals; specific actions for food contact materials (FCM) include extending generic approach to risk management, identifying endocrine disruptors, considering cumulative effects of chemical mixtures
Reading time: 4 minutes
October 14, 2020
Department of Ecology (DoE) for US state of Washington outlines recommendations to reduce impacts of PFAS on public and environmental health; focuses on drinking water, environmental concentrations, waste streams, consumer products; open for public comment until December 7, 2020
Topics: PFAS
Reading time: 2 minutes
October 12, 2020
US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) publishes draft strategy focusing on reducing contamination, increasing processing efficiency, improving markets for recycled materials; aims to address set of key problems within current recycling system; open for public comment until December 4, 2020
Topics: recycling
Reading time: 1 minute
October 12, 2020
European Environmental Bureau (EEB) and ChemSec submit comments to CARACAL subgroup on polymer registrations under REACH; recommend modifying proposed criteria for polymers requiring registration, suggest recognizing micro- and nanoplastic generation as inherent hazardous property of plastic polymers; call for mandatory pre-registration with submission of defined minimal dataset for all polymers
Reading time: 2 minutes
October 9, 2020
Restriction intention submitted to European Chemicals Agency (ECHA); aims to limit bisphenol A (BPA) and structurally similar bisphenols to maximum concentration of 0.02% by weight as additives, residues, and in mixtures; stakeholders invited to submit relevant information; proposal to be finalized in October 2021
Reading time: 2 minutes
October 9, 2020
European Court of Auditors reviews EU response to growing plastic waste and regulation enacted to address it; warns EU member states not to underestimate challenge of achieving 50% recycling rate by 2025; new reporting rules, restrictions on plastic waste exports set to lower current recycling rates
Reading time: 1 minute
October 8, 2020
Government plans to achieve zero plastic waste by 2030; set to ban six categories of single-use plastic items, introduce minimum recycled content requirements, extend producer responsibility, legally classify plastic items as toxic; proposed plan open for public comment until December 9, 2020
Topics: plastics, regulation
Reading time: 1 minute
