International regulations and legislation are having an impact on the growth and development of the bioplastics industry, particularly as it relates to the packaging industry. The European Union packaging and packaging waste directive (94/62/EC) was amended in January 2004 by directive 2004/12/EC to set new recovery and recycling targets for the next five-year phase (2005-2009). The revised directive introduces material-specific targets, clarifies the definition of packaging in an annex, and makes references to 'mechanical recycling,' 'chemical recycling' and 'feedstock recycling.' European packaging waste recovery targets for the 2005-2009 period are set at an overall recovery of 60% as a minimum by weight. Amongst the definitions of recovery are composting and degradability. Composting is described as 'organic recycling' and composted plastic packaging processed for the purpose of composting constitutes recoverable packaging under the legislation. European Standard CEN (Comité Européen de Normalisation) 13432 is the defining standard for the compostability of plastic packaging.