REACHblog®

The European Commission (EC) began a public consultation on July 8, 2025, on a draft act that will establish rules for calculating, verifying, and reporting on recycled plastic content in single-use plastic beverage bottles. According to the EC, this will provide legal clarity to European Union (EU) member states “so they can properly implement EU rules on single-use plastics,” helping to increase the use of recycled material in the EU economy and reduce plastic waste incineration and...

The United Kingdom’s (UK) Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) began a public consultation on July 14, 2025, on its proposals to extend the UK REACH transitional registration submission deadlines. UK REACH requires businesses to register with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) chemicals that are placed on the market in Great Britain (GB). According to Defra, when the UK left the European Union (EU), “information on substances on the GB market which had been...

On June 23, 2025, the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) published a Think Tank briefing entitled “Targeted scrutiny of the EU chemicals strategy for sustainability.” According to EPRS, while the European Commission (EC) has made progress in implementing initiatives outlined in the 2020 Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability, certain key actions remain unfulfilled. These include revising the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) Regulation...

The United Kingdom’s (UK) Health & Safety Executive (HSE) has begun a public consultation on a legislative proposal to reform the Great Britain (GB) Classification, Labelling and Packaging (CLP) Regulation. HSE notes that GB CLP Article 37 links mandatory classification and labeling (MCL) in GB to evaluation activity in the European Union’s (EU) harmonized classification and labeling (CLH) system by creating a statutory obligation to consider the European Chemicals Agency’s (ECHA)...

On June 2, 2025, the United Kingdom (UK) Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) requested comment on a draft indicative list for long-chain perfluorocarboxylic acids (LC-PFCA), their salts, and related compounds. According to Defra, at the 20th meeting of the Persistent Organic Pollutants (POP) Review Committee of the Stockholm Convention on POPs, the Committee recommended listing LC-PFCAs, their salts, and related compounds in Annex A of the Convention, allowing for...

The European Commission (EC) released on May 22, 2025, the identity of the countries that present a low or high risk of deforestation in producing seven commodities (cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soy, and wood) that are “the most relevant in terms of driving global deforestation and forest degradation” under the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). The classification takes into account other criteria as listed in Article 29(4) of Regulation (EU) 2023/1115. The...

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) announced on May 20, 2025, that the redesigned Classification and Labeling (C&L) Inventory is now available in ECHA CHEM, ECHA’s public database containing information from all Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) registrations received by ECHA. According to ECHA, the C&L Inventory includes information on more than 4,400 European Union (EU)-level harmonized classifications and seven million classifications...

The European Commission (EC) requested that the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) assess the risks posed by certain hexavalent chromium substances. ECHA announced on April 29, 2025, that it has concluded that a European Union (EU)-wide restriction for hexavalent chromium substances is justified because the substances “are among the most potent workplace carcinogens and pose a serious risk to workers’ health.” ECHA states that it expects to begin a six-month public consultation on a ban on...

Register now to join The Acta Group (Acta®) and EPPA for “PFAS Updates: What’s Happening in the U.S. and EU,” a complimentary webinar offering expert updates on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) regulatory developments. These substances are attracting global legal, regulatory, commercial, and litigation attention as no other “emerging contaminant” has. While the U.S. Administration is new, PFAS regulation continues at a rapid pace and U.S. state initiatives are evolving...

The United Kingdom’s (UK) Health and Safety Executive (HSE) announced on March 21, 2025, that it has published the following annual report and work program on activities under the UK regulation on the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (UK REACH): UK REACH Report, which outlines the relevant activities covering the 2023 to 2024 Work Programme; and UK REACH Work Programme, which describes operational work for 2024 to 2025. The UK REACH Report provides a summary...