This slogan, a formula as simple as it is universally applicable, originally comes from the 1992 US presidential election campaign and helped Bill Clinton to victory at the time. It was James Carville, Clinton’s campaign strategist, who hung a list of three focal points on the wall of the campaign headquarters: Change vs. more of the same, It’s the economy, stupid!, and Don’t forget health care.

The word „stupid“ doesn't have a really good German equivalent. Nor was it meant as a disparagement, but rather as a call: „Stay focused!“ A signal to the team not to get lost in side issues and to keep the economy in mind as the decisive factor. All three sentences can be applied, with slight variations, to many topics. Naturally, also to the PPWR.

Change that also has to work

„Change vs. more of the same“ – change instead of business as usual. Positively translated, this means: away from the linear economy and towards a circular industry. Closing loops, using resources multiple times, reducing packaging and designing materials so that they can actually be recycled. Change is therefore necessary. But change in itself is not yet a value. It also has to work. And that brings us to the second sentence: „It's the economy, stupid!“

For however idealistically the objectives of a regulation may be formulated: in the end they must be implemented by businesses. By people, machines and processes. With materials that are available. With technologies that work. And at costs that do not make products unsellable and businesses incapable of acting.

When volume replaces expertise

This increasingly raises the question of who actually decides how the many as yet unresolved requirements of the PPWR are to be interpreted in concrete terms. Who is consulted when the outstanding detailed rules, technical criteria, guidelines, standards and FAQs relating to the PPWR are drawn up? And whose perspective ultimately prevails?

Anyone who represents their interests in Brussels early on, professionally and, above all, loudly enough apparently has a better chance of influencing the shaping of policy. That is fundamentally legitimate. Advocacy is part of a democratic legislative process. It becomes problematic when volume is confused with expertise. After all, not every politically easily marketable solution is also practically feasible. And not every supposedly simple regulation remains simple as soon as it encounters real packaging, a bottling plant, a supply chain or a product range with several thousand items.

Perhaps the second guiding principle for the PPWR should therefore be slightly amended: „It’s the economy – and the expertise, stupid!“

Economic interests must not be the sole deciding factor. Expert knowledge and practical experience must not be missing either, however. What is needed are people in the processes who know how packaging is developed, produced, printed, filled, transported, used, collected, sorted and recycled. And not just under ideal laboratory conditions, but in industrial and everyday reality.

Don’t forget the people

That leaves the third sentence: „Don’t forget healthcare.“ At first glance, healthcare seems only marginally relevant to the EU Packaging Directive. Perhaps that is why it should actually read: „Don’t forget the people.“ Don’t forget the people!

The people in companies who have to understand and implement the requirements. Those responsible in purchasing, development, sustainability, quality assurance, production, sales and management who are currently trying to build a reliable corporate strategy out of open legal concepts, missing standards, announced legislative acts and ever-new interpretation guidelines.

But also the consumers, who need to be told why packaging will look different in the future, why certain products are becoming more expensive, or why a seemingly obvious ecological solution actually does not work technically.

Don't forget to take the people with you.

Anyone who wants to make European environmental policy successful must therefore not only set limit values, quotas and deadlines. They must also ensure that the rules are comprehensible, practicable and traceable in their consequences.

Change, yes. It’s the economy – and the expertise. And please: Don’t forget the people, stupid.