EU environmental legislation –challenge and opportunity
The EU’s European Green Deal, which aims to make Europe the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050, will build on a broad set of environmental legislation in place. Here are just some examples of the regulatory framework relevant to the pet food industry.
Waste directives
The Waste Framework Directive stipulates that recycling of 65% of municipal waste and 75% of all packaging waste must be reached by 2030. Only 10% of waste may go to landfill. The Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste sets recovery/recycling rates for packaging waste by materials like glass, cardboard and metal. The Directive on Single Use Plastics bans a number of one-way plastic goods. At the moment, the single-use plastics directive does not apply to pet food, but the scope could be extended in the future.
Animal sectors
The initiative on Product Environmental Footprints of products is a test case. Should CO2 emissions of products be a measure to raise environmental taxes or have green labelling? This still needs to be decided. The European pet food industry participated in developing the methodology for measuring the environmental footprint of dry and wet pet food.
A study by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN (FAO) on the impact of livestock farming and animal by-products on the environment concluded that livestock farming is among the top activities with a heavy environmental impact. The pet food industry, which uses agricultural by-products, could be affected by possible future EU measures.
Cleaner air and energy
The Industrial Emissions Directive tackles air pollutants, discharges of wastewater and waste: companies with a certain production volume have to comply with defined best available techniques to obtain a permit to operate. The EU Emission Trading Scheme sets a maximum on the total permitted amount of greenhouse gases and allocates allowances for emissions which can be traded if not used. The EU initiative on Clean Energy for all Europeans sets targets for increased energy efficiency and use of renewable energy.
The EU also considers deforestation. Being a big importer of agriculture commodities, the EU has an indirect effect on deforestation for arable land, but which measures the EU intends to take is not yet decided.
Environmental legislation can bring challenges but also opportunities and the pet food industry in Europe actively follows developments and will participate in projects when relevant.
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