Press Releases

European Parliament’s IMCO, ITRE and AGRI Committees voted on amendments to the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation

This week, three European Parliament’s Committees – the Committees on Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO), on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) and on Agriculture and Rural Development (AGRI) – voted on their amendments to the proposal for a Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR). UNESDA, representing the European soft drinks sector, considers that the votes represent a good first step towards improving the proposal but further work is needed to fully support beverage packaging circularity.

Aspartame is safe, reaffirm WHO and FAO

Today, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have re-affirmed that aspartame is safe. UNESDA Soft Drinks Europe applauds the conclusions of the new, comprehensive safety review of aspartame by the WHO/ FAO Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), the world’s leading food safety body for additives.

Unesda announces new President

Peter Harding, CEO of Suntory Beverage & Food Europe, has been elected as the new President of Unesda Soft Drinks Europe, representing the non-alcoholic drinks industry in Europe. He takes up his two-year mandate from 1 July 2023, taking over the presidency from Ian Ellington of PepsiCo Europe.

Unesda welcomes two new members

The Maltese Beverage Producers Association and the Croatian Chamber of Economy bring the total number of member associations of Unesda to 25.

Unesda Soft Drinks Europe announces new sugar reduction achievement and solid progress on its marketing practices and actions in EU schools

The European soft drinks sector achieved an impressive average 7.6% sugar reduction between 2019 and 2022

Let’s put circularity into practice!

NGO-industry coalition urges decision-makers to take action to prioritise closed-loop recycling in the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation

UNESDA statement on the publication of the revision of the proposal for the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation

UNESDA Soft Drinks Europe takes note of the European Commission’s publication of the revision of the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), which was released today.

Draft reuse requirements for drinks packaging are an existential threat to beverage industries and effective existing recycling systems

Our four leading European beverage associations (AIJN – European Fruit Juice Association, The Brewers of Europe, Natural Mineral Waters Europe, UNESDA Soft Drinks Europe) are united in expressing our profound concern at the mandatory targets the European Commission intends to set for the reuse of our beverage containers.

Target 90%: Unprecedented European coalition calls for EU ambitious proposal for circular beverage packaging

Today, a broad coalition representing European beverage producers, material and technology suppliers, recyclers, NGOs and public entities have called for ambitious action to enable full circularity of beverage packaging in the anticipated draft amendment of the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive (PPWD), due at the end of November 2022.

Call for EU Action: SMEs in the beverage industry call for a fairer access to recycled PET

In the EU, recycled PET is becoming almost as rare and expensive as white truffles or gold. The reason is everybody wants qualitative recycled PET from beverage bottles, and the demand significantly exceeds the offer.