Marine and River Litter Elimination New Approach

Circular Attack against Plastics

More than 100 public and private sector partners operating throughout the plastics chain have signed in Brussels the Circular Plastics Alliance – Declaration, which promotes voluntary action to support a well-functioning recycled plastics market in the EU.

The vision of the Circular Plastics Alliance is to deliver on the circular economy for plastics and substantially increase the use of recycled plastics into new products.

Thе Alliance, endorses the ambitious target that by 2025 at least 10 million tonnes of recycled plastics should find their way into products and packaging in Europe each year; referred to as “the 10 million tonnes target”, helping to deliver the circular economy with a life cycle approach. This opens up the possibility of the EU becoming a global leader in recycled plastics – a factor for protecting the environment, creating jobs and maintaining competitiveness.

The declaration, which is signed by small and medium-sized enterprises, large corporations, business associations, standardizers, research organizations and local and national authorities, calls for zero plastic waste in the wild and zero landfill of plastics. It provides specific actions to achieve the objective:

-improving the design of plastic products so that they are fit for use

-recycling and use of more recycled plastics;

– identification of sites with untapped potential for more active collection, sorting

-and recycling of plastic waste across the EU and those with a lack of investment;

-the development of a program of research and development in the field of

-circular use of plastics;

– building a transparent and reliable system for monitoring plastic waste streams in the EU.

Business associations and companies are also invited to submit engagements for the use or production of more recycled plastics.

The potential for recycling plastic waste in the EU is still largely unused, especially compared to other materials such as paper, glass or metal. Of the 27 million tonnes of plastic waste collected each year in Europe, less than a third reach recycling plants. As a result, less than 4 million tonnes of recycled plastics were sold in Europe in 2016, which is only 8% of the EU plastics market.

The Circular Plastics Alliance is committed to helping to expand the EU recycled plastics market by more than 15%.

The Circular Plastics Alliance identifies five topics as priorities:

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