The delays registered by various countries in transposing the Single Use Plastics Directive into their national framework, as well as the difficulty in other countries to properly enforce the Directive, generated confusion in the marketplace while the transition period is proving to be quite long. During this time, delivery time for orders on XPS packaging products have risen sharply.

Given different positions adopted in the market by third parties regarding EPS and XPS packaging products, BFG Packaging performed a consultation process with various policy and decision-makers and legal advisors to bring clarity on regulatory aspects, restrictions and type of products that can be produced and placed in the market for end clients. A special focus has been put on the interpretation of the rules and of packaging products banned by the SUP Directive and available on the European Market as there is a lot of uncertainty on whether both types of products (EPS and XPS) fall under the Directive’s provisions.

The conclusion is that although EPS and XPS packaging are the result of different technological processes, both   belong to the category of materials resulting from polystyrene processing, by increasing in a controlled environment the temperature and pressure of its cells with the help of specific gases. It has been also highlighted that the SUP Directive provisions are referring to product properties and not to the technological processes used to obtain it. Thus, to ensure that is 100% in compliance with the SUP Directive provisions and avoid possible penalties applicable to the company and to distributors for breaching these provisions, BFG Packaging decided to no longer offer single-use XPS products starting January 2022 for the EU market.

As such, the company will be focusing to offer all clients with alternatives to single-use XPS products, namely products made of Natural Fiber – 100% ecological and compostable obtained from renewable resources, and products made of Polypropylene both extruded (XPP) and rigid (PP).