Europe cannot deliver a circular plastics economy without enabling innovation

How innovation in technologies demonstrates the need to modernise Europe’s recycling framework

Europe has set ambitious circular economy, recycled content and climate objectives. For plastics, these objectives can help reduce waste to landfill and incineration, strengthen resource efficiency, and support a more resilient European industrial base. Yet Europe faces a striking contradiction. It calls for innovation, but too often regulates the circular economy through frameworks designed only around technologies that already operate at scale.