Anja Siegesmund leaves the BDE
Change of leadership at the BDE: Executive President Anja Siegesmund hands over her office to Vice President Matthias Harms on 31 January 2026.
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The German Association for Waste Management (DGAW) comments on the EU Commission's plans to reorganise the legal framework for handling plastic packaging. Technical innovations and substantial investment in sorting and recycling processes are needed to achieve the ambitious targets and objectives.
With its recently published proposal for an EU packaging regulation, the EU Commission is planning to reorganise the European market for packaging, in particular by setting requirements for design-for-recycling and minimum recycling quotas. There are also plans to equalise chemical and mechanical recycling. As it is planned to adopt the new regulation as an EU regulation - and not as an EU directive to be transposed into national law - it will become equally legally binding in all EU member states.
This also applies to the following two EU regulations, which are of considerable importance for the packaging market. The EU Food Contact Regulation of 15 September 2022 regulates the use of materials made from recycled plastic that are intended to come into contact with food and sets very strict requirements for the source materials and the recycling technologies and processes used. Chemical recycling is also included here.
The third regulation affecting the packaging plastics market is the EU Waste Shipment Regulation. The EU Commission's draft, which has been available since November last year, will make it largely more difficult to ship plastics to third countries. This will jeopardise the European market for packaging fundamentally reorganised in legal terms over the next few years..
Chemical recycling: expertise moves to European neighbours
Chemical recycling is recognised as a supplement to mechanical recycling in the EU and is treated equally. However, pre-sorting appears to be necessary in order to produce high-quality polymers. The aim is to ensure that fewer plastics are sent for thermal utilisation, whether as a substitute fuel or for harmless utilisation.
Since a No clear position on chemical recycling in Germany, The necessary plants are already being planned and built in neighbouring European countries such as the Netherlands, France and Austria. So that value creation and expertise are moving to our European neighbours.
SourceDGAW
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