CELEX: 51981PC0187
Language: en
Date: 1981-04-22
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL DIRECTIVE ON CONTAINERS OF LIQUIDS FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION

No C 204/6                             Official Journal of the European Communities                                13.8.81
                                                            II
                                                     (Preparatory Acts)
                                                COMMISSION
                  Proposal for a Council Directive on containers of liquids for human consumption
                              (Submitted by the Commission to the Council on 23 April 1981)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN                                      on the tightening-up of the Community's environ-
COMMUNITIES,                                                     mental policy (4), the Council called on the
                                                                 Commission to propose appropriate measures to
                                                                 promote inter alia the standardization of containers
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the                     of liquids for human consumption ( 5 );
European Economic Community, and in particular
Article 235 thereof,                                            Whereas       containers    of     liquids    for   human
                                                                consumption account for a significant proportion of
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,              urban waste and are a source of litter; whereas the
                                                                cost of collecting and disposing of household waste is
                                                                a matter of growing concern to local authorities and
Having regard to the opinion of the European Par-               governments in the Member States;
liament,
                                                                Whereas the environmental impact of used containers
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and                should be reduced and a reduction in the
Social Committee,                                               consumption       of   energy      and     raw    materials
                                                                encouraged;
Whereas the first action programme of the European              Whereas Member States should fix, each year and for
Communities on the environment (') recognizes the               each type of packaging material, the objectives to be
need for Community action relating to certain types             progressively attained in respect of the increase in the
of waste, including used containers; whereas the                quantities of containers refilled and/or recycled and
second action programme of the                   European       the reduction in the tonnage and/or volume of
Communities on the environment (2) emphasizes inter             containers in household waste; whereas moreover for
alia the importance of re-using or recycling the                reasons of hygiene or because of special regulations it
various materials contained in waste;                           is impossible, in respect of certain containers of
                                                                liquids for human consumption, such as for example
Whereas Article 3 of Council Directive 75/442/EEC               those of vinegar and olive oil, for them to be refilled;
of 15 July 1975 on waste (3) calls for the
implementation of measures to encourage the                     Whereas, in order to attain these objectives, Member
prevention, recycling and processing of waste;                  States should take all necessary and appropriate
                                                                measures, whether by legislative or administrative
                                                                means or by voluntary agreements, concerning the
Whereas at its meeting of 9 April 1979, when                    recovery of waste, technological innovation, the
examining the communication from the Commission                 choice of containers and methods of distribution, and
                                                                consumer education;
(') OJ No C 112, 20. 12. 1973, p. 1.
(2) OJ No C 139, 13. 6. 1977, p. 33                             (4) COM(79)144 final, 22. 3. 1979.
C) OJ No L 194, 25. 7. 1975, p. 47.                             (5) Document 6755/79 (ENV/73), 29. 5. 1979.
 ---pagebreak---  13.8.81                               Official Journal of the European Communities                             No C 204/7
Whereas there are various means of achieving the                                             Article 2
recovery of waste; whereas if a deposit system is used
certain conditions must be complied with;                          For the purposes of this Directive:
Whereas Member States should take all appropriate                  (a) liquids for human consumption means the liquids
 measures to discourage the bringing on to the market                   listed in Annex I;
 of new containers which are neither refillable nor
                                                                   (b) container means any bottle, can, jar, carton or
recyclable or which it would be difficult to recycle;
                                                                        any other type of initially sealed container
Whereas Member States should encourage the use on                       (excluding barrels and casks) which contains a
their territory of containers of liquids for human                      liquid for human consumption and is made of
consumption which comply with Council Directive                         glass, metal, plastic, paper or any other material;
75/106/EEC of 19 December 1974 on the approx-                      (c) refillable container means any container which
imation of the laws of the Member States relating to                    once emptied is capable of being refilled for
the making-up by volume of certain prepackaged                          further use;
liquids O as amended by Directive 79/10C5/EEC (2);
                                                                   (d) recyclable container means any container the
Whereas Member States should gather data to enable                      constituent materials of which can be used to
an assessment to be carried out of the progress made,                   manufacture new containers or different products
and should send these data to the Commission every                      or, where appropriate, to generate energy;
two years in the form of a report;
                                                                   (e) returnable container means any container in
Whereas the measures taken by Member States to                          respect of which the consumer pays the retailer,
comply with the present Directive should not be at                      at the time of purchase of a liquid for human
variance with the provisions of the Treaty, and in                      consumption contained in that container, a
particular with those concerning the free movement                      certain sum of money (deposit) which is repaid to
of goods;                                                              the consumer when the container is returned;
Whereas the Commission should be notified of such                  (f) recovery of containers means the re-use of any
measures at the draft stage so that it can examine                      used container either by refilling of recycling.
whether they are in line with the present Directive
and the EEC Treaty and, where appropriate, ask
Member States to suspend the introduction of such                                            Article 3
measures in order to enable it to prepare proposals in
this area and submit them to the Council;                           Each year, Member States shall fix, for each type of
                                                                    packaging material, the objectives to be attained in
Whereas the Committee on Waste Management set
                                                                   the following year concerning:
up by Commission Decision 76/431/EEC (3) can play
a particularly useful role by advising the Commission              — the reduction in the tonnage and/or volume of
concerning the implementation of the Directive, and                    containers in household waste;
in particular concerning new containers;
                                                                   — the increase in the amount of refilled and/or
Whereas the Treaty has not provided the necessary                      recycled containers. This increase is to be
powers, and Article 235 of the EEC Treaty should                       calculated by comparing the quantities of refilled
therefore be invoked,                                                  or recycled containers with the quantities of
                                                                       containers brought on to and used on the market
                                                                       (total quantities of containers produced and
 HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:                                           imported less the quantities of containers
                                                                       exported).
                             Article 1
                                                                                             Article 4
The objective of this Directive is to provide for action
to be taken in the field of production, marketing, use
and disposal of containers of liquids for human                    In order to attain the objectives fixed in accordance
consumption in order to reduce the environmental                   with Article 3 Member States shall take all necessary
impact of used containers, to encourage a reduction                and appropriate measures, either by legislative or
in energy consumption and to save raw materials.                   administrative means or by voluntary agreements.
                                                                   These measures shall seek inter alia:
(') O J N o L 4 2 , 15. 2. 1975, p. 1.                             (a) to encourage the recovery of used containers,
O OJ No L 308, 4. 12. 1979, p. 25.                                     taking into account health factors and any
(J) OJ No L 115, 1. 5. 1976, p. 73.                                    restrictions arising out of Community legislation;
 ---pagebreak---  No C 204/8                           Official Journal of the European Communities                            13.8.81
(b) to promote technological innovation;                                                Article 8
                                                               1.    Member States shall take the necessary steps by
(c) to bring about changes, where necessary, in the           the appropriate means to discourage the bringing on
      choice of containers and methods of distribution;       to the market of new containers which are neither
                                                              refillable nor recyclable or which, because of the
 (d) to develop consumer education in the use and             materials from which they are made, would be
      disposal of containers.                                 difficult to recycle.
                                                              2.     They shall communicate to the Committee on
                                                              Waste Management the information which they have
                                                              concerning such containers.
                         Article 5
Measures to be taken by Member States pursuant to                                       Article 9
Article 4 relating to the recovery of used containers
shall include, in particular, measures which seek to:          1.    Member States shall encourage the use on their
                                                              territory of containers of liquids for human
— promote selective collections far containers;               consumption which comply with Directive 75/106/
                                                              EEC.
— assist the development of effective processes for
    the sorting and treatment of household waste;             2.     In order to simplify sorting operations and
                                                              promote the standardization of containers, Member
— promote the widest possible range of outlets for            States shall develop, insofar as barriers to trade are
    the materials recovered from used containers.             not thereby liable to be created, the use of standard
                                                              containers for the liquids for human consumption
                                                              listed in Annex I.
                                                              3.     In consultation with the sectors of industry
                         Article 6                            concerned, the Commission shall establish and submit
                                                              to the Council as soon as possible, proposals for
Measures to be taken by Member States pursuant to             common rules relating to the standardization of
Article 4 regarding the promotion of technological            containers for the liquids for human consumption
innovation shall, without prejudice to considerations         referred to in items 3 and 8 of Annex I.
of safety, seek to reduce the weight of containers and
save energy.
                                                                                       Article 10
                                                              1.     Member States shall gather data to enable the
                         Article 7                            results of the measures taken in order to attain the
                                                              objectives fixed in this Directive to be checked and to
                                                              enable an assessment to be made of the progress
1.     Measures to be taken by Member States                  made on their territory. For this purpose, they shall
pursuant to Article 4 regarding the choice of                 set up appropriate structures and methods insofar as
containers and methods of disdtribution may, in               such structures and methods do not already exist.
particular, seek to increase the proportion of refillable
containers used.
                                                              2.     Every two years, as from 1 January 1985,
                                                              Member States shall submit a report to the
2.     Where a deposit system is used, Member States          Commission on the results and progress referred to in
shall take steps to ensure that:                              paragraph 1. This report shall be drawn up in
                                                              accordance with the guidelines given in Annex II.
(a) every container of liquids for human consumption
     which is offered for sale by a retailer clearly bears
     the symbol 'R', either on the container itself or                                 Article 11
     on the label, to indicate that it is a returnable
     container. The symbol must be affixed in such a          1.     Member States shall communicate to the
     way that it will remain intact when the container        Commission all the draft measures, whether
     is opened;                                               legislative, administrative or in the form of voluntary
                                                              agreements, by which they propose to attain the
(b) the consumer is clearly informed of the amount            objectives fixed in conformity with Article 3 and to
     of the deposit.                                          apply the provisions of Articles 8 and 9. The
 ---pagebreak--- 13.8.81                             Official Journal of the European Communities                                   No C 204/9
provisions of the Agreement of the Representatives of                                         Article 12
the Governments of the Member States meeting in
Council of 5 March 1973 on information for the
                                                                      1.    Member States shall     fix the objectives referred
Commission and for the Member States with a view
                                                                      to in Article 3 for the first time in 1984, in respect of
to     possible     harmonization         throughout      the
                                                                      the year 1985, taking as       reference basis the mean
Communities of urgent measures concerning the
                                                                     value for the years 1981 to    1983.
protection of the environment (') shall apply with
respect to such draft measures.
                                                                      2.    Member States shall take the necessary measures
2.    Member States shall notify to the Commission                    for implementing Articles 8 and 9 as from 1 January
the objectives which they fix in pursuance of Article 3               1984.
before 15 October of the year preceding that for
which those objectives are fixed. They shall also
notify to the Commission the other measures which
are adopted pursuant to this Directive.
                                                                                             Article 13
(') OJ No C 9, 15. 3. 1973, p. 1.                                    This Directive is addressed to the Member States.
                                                            ANNEX      I
              1. (a) Wine of fresh grapes (CCT heading No ex 22.05 C)
                 (b) Other still fermented beverages, for example cider, perry and mead (CCT heading No 22.07
                      B II)
                 (c) Vermouths, and other flavoured wines of fresh grapes (CCT heading No 22.06) liqueur
                     wines (CCT heading No ex 22.05 C)
              2. (a) Sparkling wines (CCT heading No 22.05 A + B)
                 (b) Other sparkling fermented drinks, for example cider, perry and mead (CCT heading
                     No 22.07 B I)
              3. Beer (CCT heading No 22.03)
              4. Spirits and other spirituous beverages (CCT heading No 22.09)
              5. Vinegar and substitutes for vinegar (CCT heading No 22.10)
              6. Edible oils (CCT heading No 15.07 A I) (CCT heading No 15.07 D II)
              7. Milk and milk-based beverages sold by volume (CCT heading No 04.01) (excluding yoghourt
                 and kephir)
              8. (a) Waters, including spa waters and aerated waters (CCT heading No 22.01)
                 (b) Lemonade, flavoured spa waters and flavoured aerated waters, and other non-alcoholic
                     beverages, not including fruit and vegetable juices (CCT heading No 22.02 A)
              9. Fruit juices and vegetables juices (CCT heading No 20.07)
 ---pagebreak--- No C 204/10                           Official Journal of the European Communities                           13. 8. 81
                                                          ANNEX      II
           The reports referred to in Article 10 shall include:
           — Separately for each type of packaging material, the percentages of re-used or recycled
               containers, by reference to the amount of containers manufactured and imported less the
               number of exported containers, and/or
           — Separately for each type of packaging material, the weight of non-recovered containers in
               household waste.
           These reports shall, as far as possible, include data on the energy consumption arising from each
           process in the life of a container (production, filling, recycling, etc.).
           The reports shall also describe the methods by which the data was gathered and processed.
           These reports shall, as far as possible, be presented to the Commission in the following form:
                                                           Material
                    (glass, PVC, PE, PET, other plastic materials, metal, cardboard composites, other)
                                                                 Year concerned             Reference basis
          Quantities produced:
          (tonnes and number of containers)
          Quantities imported:
          (tonnes and number of containers)
          Quantities exported:
          (tonnes and number of containers)
          Percentage of re-used containers (by
          reference to the total quantities of
          containers produced and imported less
          the quantities exported)
          Percentage of recycled containers (by
          reference to the total quantitites of
          containers produced and imported less
          the quantities exported)
          Quantities    of    non-recovered    used
          containers