The European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, gave her first state of the union speech and proposed a revision of the EU emissions reduction target from 40% to 55% by 2030. This target is the central piece of the EU's 2030 Climate Target Plan, together with the revised ETS state aid rules.

Stora Enso are hosting a webinar on Circular Design on 29th September.  Circular Design considers the full life cycle of packaging, not just recyclability.

On Monday, the European Parliament Agriculture and Rural Development Committee adopted MEP Petri Sarvamaa's (EPP/FI) own initiative report on the European Forest Strategy

Pro Carton combined with other paper-based associations to respond to the EU Commission on green claims while improvements they would like to see in the PEF) Product Environmental Footprint) methodology.

Cepi, the Confederation of European Paper Industries, and EPIS, the European Pulp Industry Sector Association present their #GreenSource initiative, a European-wide effort to explain how the forest-fibre industries make the 2050 climate neutrality target a reality.

The 2020 Carton E-vent & Awards will take place on October 7th 2020. You can register to attend now.

Cepi have published their 2019 key statistics report on the European Pulp and Paper industry.

The European Union is to introduce a levy on plastic waste from January 2021 as part of the bloc’s €750 billion coronavirus recovery fund agreement.

In recent months, nearly all European countries have imposed wide-ranging measures restricting public life and almost bringing it to a complete standstill. Covid-19 has had a stranglehold on Europe and the world, making “Business as usual” no longer an option.

In this rather extraordinary year the cartonboard and carton industry has been busier than ever. As an essential provider of packaging for the supply of daily consumer goods, and with office staff largely confined to their homes, they had their work cut out.

A new consumer survey has re-confirmed that consumers believe paper based packaging to be the most environmentally friendly.

Working with Graphic Packaging, and using material supplied by Stora Enso, a unique dictionary was created made entirely from cartonboard.

We are sure that many of you reading this newsletter are regular visitors to the Pro Carton website. But what you probably won’t know is that the Pro Carton sites had 142,000 hits last year, with over 100,000 unique visitors!

The EduCarton resources include a variety of crafts, worksheets and colour by numbers that have been widely promoted on social media.

Two things that have proven extremely popular during the Covid-19 crisis are video conference calls – be they WhatsApp, Skype, House Party, Zoom, Microsoft Teams or whatever – and quizzes!

An overview of the key EU policy issues being addressed by CITPA (Pro Carton are associate members), updated in July 2020

Pro Carton along with other associations support the Commission’s ambition to contribute to the circular economy through the review of the requirements for packaging and packaging waste. The review should also ensure that the proposed preventive measures will support the functioning of the internal market and free movement of packaging and packaged goods while avoiding the possible negative impact on the environment.

Feedback to the EU Inception Impact Assessment on the initiative “Review of the requirements for packaging and other measures to prevent packaging waste” can be read in the Members Area

Ecorys’ report entitled “Study supporting the Evaluation of Food Contact Materials (FCM) legislation” has now been published.

The study provides an analysis of the current EU legislative framework for FCM.

Five main materials are considered a priority by stakeholders: printing inks, paper and board, silicones, varnishes and coatings, and rubber. Positive lists already exist in several Member States for these materials and there is extensive knowledge on these substances within the industry.

Kotkamills’ water-based dispersion coated ISLA® Duo barrier board receives industrial compostability certification

The EU Commission have replied to a letter from Cepi challenging the draft Single Use Products Directive.

A new study from Cepi, “Climate effect of the forest-based sector in the European Union”, shows that forests and forest-based products remove a net of 806 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalents annually. This corresponds to 20% of all fossil emissions in the European Union. Jori Ringman, Director General at Cepi, called for EU policies that support consumers to move from high-carbon products to low-carbon forest-based products.

Fighting against food waste, Baden Board present their newly developed “food saver” board.

BillerudKorsnäs introduces a life cycle assessment tool to provide its customers with environmental insights about their packaging.

Smurfit Kappa have conducted a sustainability survey amongst 200 senior executives and 1500 consumers in the UK.