AUTHORS: Claire Monkhouse-Catherine Bowyer-Andrew Farmer

The European Commission is taking a closer look at the Packaging Directive, ten years after its adoption, and has to present a report to the European Parliament in June 2005. To inform this, DG Environment commissioned a study to evaluate the implementation of the Directive and assess options to strengthen prevention and reuse, and DG Enterprise commissioned a separate study to cover the Single Market aspects of the Directive. Whilst these discussions are important, the Industry Association for Packaging and the Environment (INCPEN) considered that there was a need to take a more comprehensive look at packaging, including its role and the factors that drive companies’ choice of packaging and consumers’ choice of packaged goods, and commissioned IEEP to produce this report.