European flexible packaging consortium Ceflex (Brussels; www.ceflex.eu) has launched a practical checklist to assist extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes and stakeholders in their efforts to reach a circular economy for their products.

It said the “Criteria for Circularity” – now available publicly for the first time within the EPR factsheet – are part of its long-standing dialogue on EPR, which is “vital to making flexible packaging circular, sustainable and economically viable”.

The consortium’s aim is for the criteria to provide a basis for further discussion and development on four pillars: operational, financial, communication, and governance, which connect and build on work from sources such as the Consumer Goods Forum (www.theconsumergoodsforum.com).

Ceflex consultant Mike Jefferson, who has been closely involved in developing the criteria and sourcing feedback from EPR schemes across Europe, said the checklist “can help EPR front runners looking to fine-tune their latest developments in sorting and recycling. Or give those yet to collect flexible packaging the knowledge to set up and optimise systems based on best practice and learning from others.”

Last year, Ceflex drew up a policy statement outlining the need to boost the amount of flexible packaging collected and recycled in Europe (see Plasteurope.com of 17.06.2021).

Ceflex is made up of more than 180 companies, associations, and organisations along the flexible packaging value chain. Its goal is to make all flexible packaging in Europe circular by 2025.