Barely two weeks after the EU's Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) became applicable, its treatment of smaller companies is already under political scrutiny. Roberta Metsola, president of the European Parliament, has described some of the burdens imposed on SMEs as “rigid and counterproductive” and said Parliament would address the problem in the coming weeks.    The criticism comes as companies are still working out how the regulation applies in practice. The PPWR became applicable across the EU on August 12, replacing much of the previous patchwork of national packaging rules with a common European framework ...