The CIP – Portuguese Business Confederation denounces an increase of almost 100% in the financial compensation required from companies for the collection of packaging waste starting next year.
On behalf of several sector associations, the CIP expresses “its deep dissatisfaction” with this update published in an order approved this week which, it claims, will have “negative and serious consequences” for “businesses and consumers.”
This is the annual update of the value of these counterparts, which represent the costs that packagers, importers and packaging suppliers must pay to join the SIGRE systems (Integrated Waste Management System). In the accounts released in the joint statement, “SIGRE’s recovery costs increase, in 2025 compared to 2024, from 122 million euros to 237 million euros.”
The sectoral associations and the CIP indicate that they warned that it would be necessary to guarantee not only transparency in the calculation process, but also that “a gradual increase in the aforementioned values was adopted so that all agents obtain clear and timely information, avoiding imbalances. and providing stability and responsibility to all participants.” And they say that the most immediate consequence of “this entire incomprehensible process will be the penalization of consumers, with a significant increase in prices/inflation in the market, and in the sectors of activity that interact directly with them.”
The joint order signed by the Secretariats of State for Economy and Environment indicates that the update of values by type of packaging and by system was calculated based on the average variation rate of June 2024 of the harmonized consumer price index. However, it also states that a new financial compensation model applicable from the beginning of next year was adopted and that it was based on a study that will not have been shared with contributing companies.
In this joint position released by the CIP, the associations say that the analysis of the order does not allow evaluating the assumptions of the proposal or the foundations that supported the change in the respective tables.
According to the order, compensation must include investment, financing and exploration costs, as well as costs associated with the activities in question. And it indicates that there have been increases in the management costs of urban waste management systems (SGRU), as well as a significant increase in inflation since the pandemic. It also refers to the need for waste to meet new technical specifications to integrate the two systems, which will require additional investments by management companies to guarantee greater and better classification of the different types of packaging waste.
In addition to highlighting the need to set values in a more predictable framework, to give companies time to prepare, the associations highlight that “SIGRE has suffered from operational inefficiencies that should have led to considering the process of defining and calculating the Values of Counterpart. (VC), which did not happen.”
Arguments that lead the CIP and the associations it represents in this statement to request the “re-evaluation of the order, in particular the redefinition of the methodology for setting the VC for 2025, taking into account the real costs and the need to implement a system based on clear, balanced and transparent criteria.”
Source: Observadora
