Policy & Media

Plastics Europe welcomes the revision of the Waste Framework Directive Revision (WFD) as we believe that waste collection and sorting systems should be improved to increase recycling rates and prevent plastics from being incinerated or landfilled. We share the Commissions concerns on low recycling rates, insufficient volumes of recyclates, the lack of efficient waste-collection, sorting and recycling systems provision in many Members States.

Key Points:• Plastics Europe supports a future-orientated Construction Products Regulation – one that recognises the value of plastics as a high-performance, durable, and sustainable construction material.• The CPR should remain a material neutral / performance-based regulation, with an approach based upon scientific assessments and bearing in mind the specific product characteristics needs.• A one-size-fits-all approach to circularity will not work in construction due to the diversity of materials and the longer loops in service lifetime. Many design-related actions will only provide results in the long term and material recovery of existing construction materials needs to continue to improve.• For increased circularity and sustainability, a technology-neutral approach that recognises chemical recycling or renewable feedstocks using the mass balance accounting principle will best enable the recycled content use where possible.• The transition of the construction ecosystem must continue to be assessed via factual and scientific based methods (Level(s), LCAs, EPD’s). EPDs are the widely used approach for transparently communicating the environmental performance. Plastics Europe recommends accepting the mass balance credit method as chain-of-custody in the Environmental Product Declarations.• Finally, the Commission proposal requires significant further elaboration and details, notably the points on delegated acts and what products are in and out of scope.

To meet the plastic circularity objectives and optimize the availability of resources for future generations, the contribution of all recycling technologies is required. They will only altogether allow Europe to reach its ambitious sustainability targets.

The Commission is updating the 2006 legislation (EC 1013/2006) on Shipments of Waste with one of its aims being to facilitate intra-EU shipments of waste recycling into secondary raw materials in the EU market and thus contribute to the diversification of resources in the EU.