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At First Inaugural Meeting, MEPs Highlight Gaps In Current Life Cycle Assessments

The first MEP policy dialogue on glass packaging and glass tableware took place in the European Parliament. This is a platform where a range of policy issues affecting the glass industry can be openly discussed and debated with Europe’s decision makers, NGOs and stakeholders

On the 25th of September, 2012, the first MEP policy dialogue on glass packaging and glass tableware took place in the European Parliament. This is a platform where a range of policy issues affecting the glass industry can be openly discussed and debated with Europe’s decision makers, NGOs and stakeholders. The MEP Policy Dialogue is hosted by Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) Dr Filip Kaczmarek from Poland, Member of the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and Dr Vittorio Prodi from the Partito Democratico, Italy, a member of the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats. The Group is supported by FEVE – the EU container glass association. Over the coming years, the MEP Policy Dialogue in the European Parliament will study a range of policy issues like waste management, industrial policy, sustainable consumption and production.

Dr Filip Kaczmarek, in welcoming the establishment of the MEP Policy Dialogue on glass packaging and tableware, said, “This MEP Policy Dialogue is an excellent opportunity to contribute and discuss issues which are important for industry and consumers alike. For that we need to know first-hand about the issues and understand the complexities to build a healthy and vibrant glass manufacturing base in Europe.” The inaugural event provided the opportunity to discuss how Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) enjoy wide consensus as the best way to assess environmental impacts. However policy makers should work towards plugging the gaps and beware of pitfalls. In the live-streamed event from Parliament, Prof. Dr. Finkbeiner from the Technische Universität Berlin, Germany, presented his findings on the gaps in Life Cycle Assessments and advised, “It is extremely important to look into all aspects of environmental impacts when calculating LCA. However there are still methodological limitations and certain environmental impacts which are not covered by LCA yet. It is good news that stakeholders and policy makers use LCA results more and more for their decision making, but they have to be aware of the inherent limitations of LCA – especially if they use LCA to compare different packaging materials.”

Kevin Stairs, expert on chemicals and pollution at the Greenpeace EU Unit in Brussels, warned that: “LCAs are only as good as the models they are based on. Today we do not see all environmental and health impacts like marine litter or toxicology taken into account.” In his concluding remarks MEP Dr Vittorio Prodi concluded that “LCAs are an essential tool to assess environmental impacts but we should not restrict the assessment to a simple model only because it is more convenient, we have to improve it.”
Videos and photos of the event can be downloaded on www.feve.org

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