Environmental

Last week, the Lorax EPI team gave a workshop on global packaging EPR developments as part of the Sustainability in Packaging US 2021 Conference. Our presenters took some time to investigate the true costs of packaging extended producer responsibility on a per-capita and per-product basis as well as discuss major changes in worldwide EPR programs that wil...

​What is Excessive packaging?Excessive packaging, namely over-packaging or unnecessary packaging, describes a product that is wrapped by multiple layers of material, which is unnecessary or unwanted by the customers. The purpose of these extra layers of packaging might be for the protection or decoration of products. However, they can be a waste of resou...

First developed in the 1990s in Germany, the Green Dot does not (as is commonly believed) indicate that packaging is recyclable. Instead, it indicates that its manufacturer has contributed financially towards the cost of waste management - see my previous blog​ for details of this and other commonly used signs and symbols. ​Several years ago, many countr...

On 15th March 2021, the New York Senate Majority passed its one-house budget resolution. While most of the proposal is focused on providing emergency aid to help the state recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, it also includes initiatives that prioritise environmental justice and pollution reduction. Specifically, the Senate Majority one-house State Budget ...

​In many countries around the world, producers must pay levies on all product packaging and on the products they sell. These levies, or extended producer responsibility (EPR) funding, is to build infrastructure for collecting materials to be recycled.Packaging levies started in Germany in the early 1990s with der Grüne Punkt (or Green Dot) and quickly spr...

​France's 2020 Circular Economy law (the Loi AGEC) has resulted in many changes to their packaging, WEEE and batteries requirements - including substantial alterations to labelling regulations.Triman and sorting instructionsFrom 1 January 2022, the Triman logo will be obligatory on all household packaging except beverage glass (currently only mandatory fo...

Lorax EPI is dedicated to simplifying global sustainability. Brand owners, retailers, manufacturers, producers and other industry professionals rely on our in-house software and international team of consultants to comply with wide-ranging stewardship obligations, keep ahead of legislation and advance their sustainability goals. One of the main ways our c...

​Following a few months of silence, the UK government has now published more information about the plastics tax. So what do we know about it?Following the publication of draft legislation ​on November 12th, we now know that some things have changed from the proposal contained in ​the March consultation (covered in a previous blog post).​ Key details tha...

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, in collaboration with the UN Environment Programme, launched the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment in October 2018. Signatories of the Commitment represent over one-fifth of all plastic packaging produced worldwide, and over 500 businesses, governments and industry organisations are united behind a common vision and ta...

​While many clients rely on Lorax EPI for our cloud-based EPR software to assist with legal product stewardship reporting obligations, we have been getting more and more inquiries for our environmental consulting services recently. EPR legislation differs from country to country (and sometimes province to province), making regulatory compliance a complex ...

​In the past five years, the European Commission has placed ever increasing emphasis on the need for the circularity of resources, and has published / amended a number of Directives to reflect this. ​In 2018, the European Council adopted the Circular Economy Package, which included amendments to the Waste Framework Directive (2018/851), the Landfill Direc...

In April 2018, the UK announced that it was establishing the world's first Plastics Pact as part of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's New Plastics Economy. The Pact is meant to bring together all key stakeholders to move towards a circular economy for plastics and plastic packaging in particular. In the last few weeks, two new national Pacts have been anno...

The Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act of 2020 was first introduced to the US House of Representatives and the Senate on 11th February as SB 3263 and HB 5845. Then on 11th June, a related bill of the same name, SB 3944, was introduced to the Senate and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works.If passed, this latest bill would amend the...

​​2020 seems to be the year for taxes on plastic: the UK​, Spain, Italy and Indonesia (to name but a few) have all published details of their plans in recent months. Now the EU has announced that it will be introducing a levy on plastic packaging. So what actually is going to be taxed, how much for, and when are they going to start?Indonesia​​The Indone...

​Countries around the world either have, or are implementing producer responsibility regulations for products including packaging, batteries, tyres, antifreeze and electronics. Obligated producers need to register either with a government agency (most often the country's Environment Agency) or a producer responsibility scheme - or both! But what's invol...

​At the beginning of 2020, France passed a comprehensive new law to amend its Environment Code (see our earlier blog for more details), which among many other things introduced new labelling requirements. Since then, a draft decree has also been published, which provides more details about what producers will need to do in future.​From 2021, any packagin...