Regulation & Policy

Plastic straws have been a target of single-use plastic bans worldwide due to their short usage time (minutes) and long environmental persistence (centuries).

As Indian brand owners face pressure to increase recycled content in packaging, automotive, and construction sectors, access to affordable scrap becomes a strategic input.

Achieving 99.55 percent diversion means that less than half of one percent of this waste stream reaches landfill, a standard far stricter than typical municipal recycling targets of 50-70 percent.

As packaging regulation becomes more closely linked to sustainability and trade policy, companies are expected to face higher compliance costs and greater pressure to align packaging design, sourcing, and reporting practices across multiple jurisdictions.

According to the ILO, improving occupational safety and income stability within informal recycling activities is critical for building resilient urban labour markets, particularly where waste management systems are under strain from rapid population growth.

The aim is to ensure packaging is easier to collect, sort, and recycle at scale. For converters and brand owners, this means moving from complex multi-material structures toward mono-material designs that are readily recyclable.

Technologies such as 3D scanning and automated box-making systems are expected to play a growing role in matching packaging size to product dimensions.

Portugal joins a growing list of European countries with national DRS, including Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Croatia, and the Netherlands.

California’s SB 343 transforms the chasing arrows symbol from a marketing tool into a legal assertion backed by civil penalties up to US$2,500 per violation.

ITALY – Italy’s Ministry of Environment and Energy Security has presented a draft legislative proposal to exempt biodegradable and compostable formats from the PPWR’s single-use…