30 August 2019

Food Contact News

EUROPE
SUSPENSION OF FREE “PLASTIC FREE” ORDER

Unionplast against the measures of two Sicilian municipalities was accepted: the emergency is not documented and the damage to the companies would be serious and irreparable.
The global attention on plastics has caused so much concern that even local administrations in some regions of Italy have banned the use of plates, cutlery, glasses and other plastic items. The ordinances have been conducted without assessing the items properly in terms of negative effects. The producers of plastic, in order to defend their position, have clearly asked the administrative justice to intervene on this issue. In particular, the Regional Court of Sicily has suspended the measures adopted by some municipal administrators and now plastic commodities are sold and marketed again. Such move will surely be object of discussion both in local and in national administration in Italy.

NORTH AMERICA
DISCUSSION ON U.S. MILITARY PFAS REGULATIONS

U.S. House of Representatives passes National Defense Authorization Act calling for removal of PFAS from firefighting foams and food packaging in military, revised version to be discussed with Senate and then sent for presidential approval pending list of ‘concerns’
The U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass its version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which sets out a number of actions to manage and prevent further environmental contamination from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). One of the amendments included in the bill would ban PFAS from food packaging used by the military. The primary focus of the bill, however, surrounds requiring PFAS contaminated sites to be eligible for clean-up funding under the U.S. Superfund law (CERCLA), adding PFAS as toxic pollutants within the Clean Water Act, and phasing out the use of PFAS in military firefighting foams.