According to the highlights of TOMRA newsletter, an expert speaks about the circular economy in an article titling: EU measures on global waste problem by Tina Ajdič. In her guest contribution Tina Ajdič, Senior Adviser at ADS Insight SPRL gives insight into updates on EU legislation. Therein she explains EU measures on the global waste and plastics problem including the initiatives on plastics, legislation on waste, targets and strategies.
The article writes: Over the past five years, circular economy and plastics pollution have become one of the priorities of the European Union (EU). The EU has been increasingly focusing on these topics by adopting several legislative and non-legislative initiatives to reduce plastic litter and stimulate Europe’s transition towards a circular economy with the view to boost global competitiveness, foster sustainable economic growth and generate new jobs.
In 2015, the European Commission published the Circular Economy Package, which included a circular economy action plan and a revision of the EU waste legislation that entered into force in summer 2018. The new waste laws introduce new and higher recycling targets, such as 70% recycling target for packaging waste by 2030, including 55% of plastic packaging waste, and a landfill reduction of maximum 10% of municipal waste by 2035. Furthermore, harmonised calculation rules for measuring recycling targets were established, as well as minimum requirements for extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes. EPR schemes will have to be established for all packaging by the end of 2024, and separate collection obligations will be extended, in addition to paper, plastic, metal and glass waste, also to hazardous household waste, bio-waste and textile waste.
In addition to addressing waste and recycling, the EU adopted also comprehensive, material-specific strategies and legislation, in particular for plastics. In January 2018, the European Commission published the European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy, which sets for the first time a vision for EU’s new plastics economy. It states that by 2030, all plastic packaging placed on the EU market should be reusable or recyclable. The Strategy announces multiple actions e.g. to boost product design and recycled content, to improve separate collection of plastic waste, investment and innovation, and to reduce single-use plastics.
Part of this Strategy is a new law (directive) on single-use plastics, which entered into force in the summer of 2019 and is considered to be the most ambitious piece of legislation world-wide tackling marine litter. The directive tackles the most littered items found on Europe’s beaches and fishing gear and sets various measures for these different items. These measures include: bans of certain single-use plastic items (e.g. straws, cutlery, plates), consumption reduction targets, labelling and design requirements as well as awareness raising measures. Mandatory recycled content is introduced for the first time in EU legislation, of 25% in PET bottles from 2025 and 30% in all bottles from 2030. The new directive also sets a 90% separate collection target for single-use beverage bottles to be achieved by 2029. Deposit-return schemes are recommended in the directive as a way to achieve these targets. The directive furthermore extends EPR requirements to cover also the costs of litter clean-up and awareness raising.
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