This event is hosted by Malte Gallée, Member of the European Parliament (Greens/European Free Alliance).
On 30 November 2022, the European Commission presented its proposal for a Regulation on packaging and packaging waste, with the overall ambition to encourage prevention of waste and reuse of a wide range of packaging types, in line with the EU waste hierarchy.
There are however on the one hand hygiene and safety concerns related to reusable food packaging, and on the other hand there is a lack of awareness/visibility of the presence of hazardous chemicals in single-use packaging and their significant impact on consumers’ health and circularity.
As the European Parliament and the Council are preparing their positions on the Packaging & Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) proposal, this event gathered stakeholders to share their expertise and views on the topic of food packaging safety; to discuss existing concerns about hygiene and harmful chemicals; best practices; and how the EU laws – and the PPWR in particular – should truly minimise impacts of packaging on consumers health and materials circularity.
Agenda
Moderator: Nathan Dufour, Reuse Systems Manager and Lead of the ReuSe Vanguard Project (RSVP), Zero Waste Europe
15.00-15:15 Welcome/Introduction/Keynote
- Malte Gallée, MEP, Greens/European Free Alliance
15.15 – 16:00 Panel
- Dorota Napierska, Policy Officer on Toxic-free Consumption & Production, Zero Waste Europe – Setting the scene
- Dr. Jane Muncke, Managing Director and Chief Scientific Officer, Food Packaging Forum
- Michela Vuerich, Programme Manager Sustainability & Services, ANEC (The European consumer voice in standardisation)
- Carla Valeiras Alvarez, EU Policy Officer, Safe Food Advocacy Europe
- Eleonore Blondeau, New Projects Manager and Circular Industry expert, Eternity Systems
16.00 – 16.15 Reaction to the interventions
- Wolfgang Trunk, Team Leader, Circular Economy – From Waste to Resources, DG ENVIRONMENT, European Commission
- Bastiaan Schupp, Team Leader Food Contact Materials, DG Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE), European Commission
16.15 – 16.50
16.50 – 16.55
- Malte Gallée, MEP, Greens/European Free Alliance – Closing remarks
(Re-)watch the panel discussion
Speakers
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Malte Gallée
Member of the European Parliament (Greens/European Free Alliance)
Malte Gallée
Member of the European Parliament (Greens/European Free Alliance)
Malte Gallée has been a Member of the European Parliament since 2021 (Greens/European Free Alliance). He is also a German politician from Alliance 90/The Greens.
At the European Parliament, Malte Gallée is a Member of the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee; and a Substitute Member of the Development and Internal Market & Consumer Protection Committees.
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Dorota Napierska
Policy Officer on Toxic-Free Consumption & Production
Dorota Napierska
Policy Officer on Toxic-Free Consumption & Production
Dorota Napierska is a Policy Officer on Toxic-Free Consumption and Production at Zero Waste Europe (ZWE). Dorota holds a PhD degree in Biomedical Sciences and prior to joining ZWE, she was leading the Safer Chemicals programme at Health Care Without Harm Europe. At ZWE, Dorota’s work focuses on the topic of safety of products & packaging (and food contact materials in particular), as well as clean and effective material cycles needed to achieve a truly circular economy.
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Eleonore Blondeau
New Projects Manager and Circular Industry Expert, Eternity Systems
Eleonore Blondeau
New Projects Manager and Circular Industry Expert, Eternity Systems
Eléonore Blondeau is a Circular Industry Expert who, within the ETERNITY Systems Group (part of the New ERA alliance), develops a regional network of reusable containers & packaging washing micro-factories. In 2015, as a young graduate passionate about new technologies with a positive impact on the environment, Eléonore got involved in creation of CleanCup® – a turnkey solution that automatically distributes, collects and washes, on site, reusable glass cups to eliminate the consumption of disposable cups across campuses, businesses and communities.
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Dr Jane Muncke
Managing Director and Chief Scientific Officer, Food Packaging Forum
Dr Jane Muncke
Managing Director and Chief Scientific Officer, Food Packaging Forum
Dr Jane Muncke is the Managing Director and Chief Scientific Officer at the charitable Food Packaging Forum Foundation (FPF), a research and science communication organization based in Zurich (Switzerland) that focuses onchemicals in all types of food contact materials. Jane holds a doctorate degree in environmental toxicology from the ETH Zurich and is a full scientific member of the Society of Toxicology (SOT), the Society for Environmental Chemistry and Toxicology (SETAC), the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the Endocrine Society. Since 2019, she is an elected expert member of the Swiss Organic Farming Association BioSuisse’s committee on trade and processing.
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Michela Vuerich
Programme Manager Sustainability & Services, ANEC (the European Consumer Voice In Stardardisation)
Michela Vuerich
Programme Manager Sustainability & Services, ANEC (the European Consumer Voice In Stardardisation)
Michela Vuerich is a Programme Manager Sustainability & Services atANEC (The European consumer voice in standardisation). She holds a master’s degree in International Communication. While working, she also obtained a certificate in Environmental Management and Assessment from the University of Bath, as well as a post-graduate qualification in Project Management of Sustainability Reporting. She has over 15 years’ experience in working on consumer protection and standardisation and on European consumer policy, including on sustainable consumption and production.
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Carla Valeiras
Policy Officer, SAFE - Food Advocacy Europe
Carla Valeiras
Policy Officer, SAFE - Food Advocacy Europe
Carla Valeiras is a Policy Officer at SAFE – Food Advocacy Europe, the Brussels-based NGO advocating for consumers’ health and concerns in EU food legislation. In her position, she is in charge of files on food information to consumers, and she is also coordinating the Horizon European project R3PACK – aiming to tackle single-use plastic packaging in food by developing an optimized reuse scheme.
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Dr. Wolfgang Trunk
Team Leader, Circular Economy - From Waste to Resources, DG ENVIRONMENT, European Commission
Dr. Wolfgang Trunk
Team Leader, Circular Economy - From Waste to Resources, DG ENVIRONMENT, European Commission
Dr. Wolfgang Trunk is Policy Officer for the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation at the European Commission. Previously, from March 2005 to January 2022, he was Policy Officer in the fields of official controls of food and feed, feed legislation, sustainability of livestock farming, including fighting food waste at the European Commission’s DG SANTE.
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Bastiaan Schupp
Team Leader Food Contact Materials, DG Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE), European Commission
Bastiaan Schupp
Team Leader Food Contact Materials, DG Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE), European Commission
Bastiaan Schupp leads the food contact materials team in the Directorate General for Health and Food Safety of the European Commission. He is a chemical engineer by education, and has worked on food contact materials since 2011. His main responsibility is the general implementation of the legislation on food contact materials, and he has a specific focus on plastics and recycled plastics.
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Moderator - Nathan Dufour
Reuse Systems Manager and Leader of the ReuSe Vanguard Project (RSVP), Zero Waste Europe
Moderator - Nathan Dufour
Reuse Systems Manager and Leader of the ReuSe Vanguard Project (RSVP), Zero Waste Europe
As ZWE’s Reuse Systems Manager, Nathan builds bridges between civil society organisations, new businesses, innovators, academics, investors and policy-makers to contribute to the emergence of a truly circular, zero waste, and non-toxic economy that has prevention and reuse at its core. He is also the coordinator of the ReuSe Vanguard Project (RSVP); and co-coordinates the business leg of the BFFP-led We Choose Reuse campaign which, among others, has gathered the support of around 200 reuse businesses from across Europe.