Green Pak, on behalf of Maltese small businesses, has proposed changes to the European Commission’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive.

The proposed changes, which are supported at EU level by Pro Europe, which operates national Green Dot schemes in 33 countries, seek to remove some of the new items introduced in the packaging and non-packaging list of the proposed Annex I of the directive.

These amendments will be legally binding, if accepted by the European Council, and will have to be implemented by all member states by the end of this year.

A consultation meeting with all the Maltese companies that qualify under the obligations of these packaging regulations was organised by Green Pak in collaboration with the Energy and Environment Committee of the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Enterprise.

The meeting tackled current concerns related to the retail industry, in particular to small shops.

On their behalf, Green Pak is seeking the removal of the proposed changes to Annex I, namely the non-packaging criteria which include wrapping paper (sold separately), paper baking cases (sold empty) and cake dollies sold without a cake.

“With the EC revisions, retailers who are in the habit of gift-wrapping sold items would become directly responsible for recycling such paper. This would be an added obligation on small retailers, one which creates an unnecessary burden for them,” said Mario Schembri, Green Pak’s CEO.

“We believe it is far easier to ensure compliance by ‘sellers’ of wrapping paper rather than their users, who are mostly small retailers or sole shop owners. There are fewer sellers of wrapping paper than there are retailers using wrapping paper.

“Green Pak believes that the responsibility for recycling wrapping paper remains with the wholesalers. The same reasoning applies to the other items, such as paper baking cases and cake dollies,” he said.

Green Pak has has almost 400 members and it has grown into a co-operative.