CONSUMER PRODUCTS AND RETAIL E-SSENTIALS

EU: Recent updates to marking requirements for single-use plastic products

MARCH 2021 - HARDLINES

In late December 2020, we informed you that the European Commission has published the Regulation for harmonised marking specifications¹ for certain single-use plastic (SUP) products. 

On 5 March 2021, the Commission issued a Corrigendum² to provide corrected translations for clear and standardized information labelled on SUP products including sanitary towels, wet wipes, tobacco filters and cups, as mistakes were found in the linguistic versions in the Regulation. In support of the implementation of marking specifications, the Commission now provides a weblink to the vectorised pictograms³ in all official languages of the EU Member States.

Although the Commission had an indicative timeline to present the guidance under the definition of SUP directive⁴ article 12 by July 2020, the long-awaited document is still not yet published. According to a recent joint-industry statement from European associations from the plastics value chain and different sectors, discussions regarding the content are still ongoing.

[1]  Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/2151

[2]  Corrigendum L 77/40, 5 March 2021

[3]  2021/C 89/05, 16 March 2021

[4]  Directive (EU) 2019/904