{"id":314656,"date":"2024-01-22T14:00:52","date_gmt":"2024-01-22T13:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2024\/01\/22\/ue-caffe-capsule-imballaggi-trattate-tali\/"},"modified":"2024-01-24T18:32:41","modified_gmt":"2024-01-24T17:32:41","slug":"eu-coffee-in-the-crosshairs-capsules-will-be-packaging-and-treated-as-such","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/01\/22\/eu-coffee-in-the-crosshairs-capsules-will-be-packaging-and-treated-as-such\/","title":{"rendered":"EU, coffee in the crosshairs: capsules will be packaging and treated as such"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Brussels \u2013 For some a pleasure, for some a necessity, for everyone or almost everyone a daily habit. Synonymous with breakfast, awakening, or a simple break, coffee accompanies domestic and working life. Thanks also to new machines with pods and especially capsules, for which the European Union has a real revolution in the pipeline. There is too much coffee break waste, estimated at 98.495 tons in the EU alone, which adds to the already excessive packaging waste in the twelve-star territory. Hence the need to take the necessary steps to remedy what is considered a bad habit.<\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en-EN\"><strong>To date, the packaging and packaging waste directive does not consider capsules as packaging<\/strong>, but this is expected\u00a0to change with the proposal that aims to amend the directive and elevate it to regulation. This paradigm shift, explains Environment Commissioner <strong>Virginius Sinkevicius<\/strong>, &#8220;will enable producers to make investment decisions that allow for better sorting and subsequent recycling.&#8221; Because, the commissioner explains in the response to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.europarl.europa.eu\/doceo\/document\/E-9-2023-003275_EN.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a parliamentary question on the matter<\/a>, the coffee container is a small mine of substances useful to the environment and beyond.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en-EN\">The European Commission has realized that\u00a0<strong>coffee grounds contain &#8220;valuable plant nutrients such as potassium, phosphorus and nitrogen<\/strong> that can be used to enrich the soil instead of being incinerated.&#8221; They are thus a resource for the soil, also from an agricultural perspective. Still, there are in the small round-shaped packaging &#8220;<\/span><span lang=\"it-EN\">other valuable secondary raw materials of which capsules are made, such as aluminium, &#8220;which is useful\u00a0for industrial and production processes. That is why &#8220;<\/span><span lang=\"en-EN\">composting both the capsule and the material in it would be the most environmentally beneficial option.&#8221; And that is why, Sinkevicius again points out, the proposed regulation on packaging and packaging waste includes &#8220;a requirement&#8221; that coffee capsules be compostable. <\/span><span lang=\"en-EN\">Standing by the principle that &#8220;<strong>packaging should be compostable when it would facilitate the separate collection of organic waste<\/strong>,&#8221; as stated in the proposed regulation submitted to stakeholders, it is noted\u00a0that pods or capsules made with aluminium are no longer sustainable.<\/span>\u00a0As t<span lang=\"en-EN\">he Environment Commissioner acknowledges,\u00a0<strong>aluminium &#8220;is not easily&#8221; recoverable<\/strong>. In the case of capsules, because they are dense, small objects that are not well captured by optical waste collectors, and in any case, rigid plastic is not accepted in many European composting facilities. That&#8217;s why &#8220;<\/span><span lang=\"it-IT\">coffee requires a packaging material other than aluminium.&#8221;<\/span>\u00a0F<span lang=\"en-EN\">ear not,\u00a0the home or office coffee revolution will have no economic repercussions. It is not a matter of compelling anyone to change equipment, the EU commissioner is keen to point out. &#8220;Compostable coffee capsules are already commercially available, therefore, once the requirement comes into effect, no replacement of existing machines will be necessary.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Environment Commissioner Virginius Sinkevicius confirms that with the transition from directive to regulation, mini expresso containers will be affected by EU regulations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":314562,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25705,25681],"tags":[25746,26103,26478,26076,25862,26479,25886,26290,26480],"class_list":["post-314656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-politics","tag-aluminum-en","tag-caffe-en","tag-environment-en","tag-packaging-en","tag-recycling-en","tag-sustainability-en","tag-virginijus-sinkevicius-en","tag-waste-and"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314656"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":328959,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314656\/revisions\/328959"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}