Regulation follows regulation. On August 12, the so-called EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) will enter into force, reorganizing the recycling framework for packaging across Europe. The PPWR will replace the current patchwork of national packaging recycling laws with a unified framework for the EU single market. Until then, Germany’s existing Packaging Act (VerpackG) remains in effect.

The PPWR is one of the building blocks of the Green Deal, which seeks to lead the EU economy toward a carbon-neutral future through an increasingly detailed and expansive regulatory architecture covering national recycling efforts as well as sector-specific initiatives. The PPWR forces such firms to hire local authorized representatives or specialized service providers to manage registration, documentation, and communication with local authorities in detail in order to oversee the packaging recycling process. 

Petty, exhausting, and expensive, Euro-bureaucracy is steadily eroding Europe’s competitiveness and turning private-sector investment into a gamble. The idea of the free market — namely that consumer demand for cleaner and more environmentally friendly production and logistics can be expressed through competition itself, one of civilization’s greatest achievements — appears to have largely vanished within today’s EU.

https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/eu-packaging-rules-create-another-bureaucratic-monster

 

I am curious — will these new regulations be applied to businesses outside the EU and thus used to stop shipments INTO the EU that do not comply with the new packaging regulations?  OR … Is this additional expense & gutting of competitiveness aimed solely at EU based companies?