Gómez-Acebo & Pombo analyses the impact of the new waste law on the Agri-food sector

Gómez-Acebo & Pombo hosted this week at its Madrid offices, located in the Realia Tower, part of the Kio Towers complex, a conference chaired by Carlos Vázquez, Public Law coordinating partner, and dedicated to discuss the challenges that are still to come from the European Union’s projects for 2030 regarding the Sustainable Development Goals and for 2050 regarding the so-called Green Pact.

It is because both purposes require a substantial change in the field of waste and packaging, especially under the European Plastics Strategy in a circular economy derived from the new Directive 2019/904, since the new Law 7/2022, incorporates the requirements of the SUP Directive into our legislation.

During the conference, it was agreed that “all production sectors will be affected by the new Law 7/2022”. However, “the food sector will be without a doubt one of the first to be affected, given that a huge percentage of waste comes from the primary sector”, said Palma.

In this analysis, in addition to José Luis Palma, Eduardo Orteu, Public  Law lawyer, specialising in regulatory, environmental and water law; and Pedro Poveda, partner and Coordinator of the Environment, specialising in environmental law, waste, integrated pollution prevention and control (IPPC) and environmental authorisations, took part, combining knowledge of the agri-food sector with the Firm’s specialisation in waste and the environment with the aim of analysing measures such as: the new regulation on the reduction of food waste, the specific obligations on the system of collecting used cooking oils and bio-waste, the measures to encourage the reuse and promotion of the bulk sale of food products in commerce, the restrictions on the marketing of certain plastic products commonly used in the agri-food industry and in the commercial distribution services of its products or in the HORECA channel, the singularities of the regulation of the end of the waste status for phytosanitary products, or the new extended producer responsibility for agricultural plastics, among others, which will have to be applied together with the new general regulation of waste management where extended producer responsibility schemes gain special relevance.