Plastics Recyclers Europe, the European Waste Management Association (FEAD), and Recycling Europe have signed a joint letter urging the European Commission to support the continent’s recycling industry by prioritizing European-made recycled plastic in mandatory recycled content targets.
As the European Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy, Jessika Roswall, prepares to publish the Circular Economy Winter-Package, the associations urge her to specify that beverage bottles placed on the EU market must contain recycled plastic sourced exclusively from post-consumer waste collected and recycled in Europe.
Furthermore, they argue that all products manufactured within Europe should be required to use recyclate sourced exclusively from European post-consumer waste. The letter also calls for ‘robust’ mirror clauses to implement and enforce the measures for products imported from third countries – a factor to ‘ensure consistent sourcing and environmental standards for recycled content’.
The signatories believe that taking ‘swift action’ to implement the measures will help Europe preserve its recycling capacity and pursue its climate and circular economy goals. They add that the same regional sourcing logic should be implemented across recycled content targets in all future legislation.
“Europe cannot achieve its circular economy and climate goals without a viable recycling industry,” the signatories say. “We have set ambitious targets, invested billions in infrastructure, and built world-leading environmental standards. Now is the time to stand up to our ambitions and objectives – managing our own waste and to enforce regional recycling at scale.
“It is high time to ensure European recyclates – produced under these strict standards – are placed at the forefront of European markets. This is not protectionism; but a matter of policy coherence and shared responsibility across the value chain, ensuring that our circular economy vision is realised through domestic industrial capacity that meets the highest environmental standards, rather than being undermined by non-verified imports from third countries.”
The development comes after organizations like TOMRA, Searious Business, and Maastricht University signed on to a campaign encouraging the EU to address high recyclate costs, recycling plant closures, and other ‘broken economics’ of the plastics recycling industry.
As part of Searious Business’ Ring the Bell campaign, over 110 organizations from across Europe’s plastics value chain have also signed an industry statement asking officials at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Environment to ‘close the gap’ between virgin and recycled plastic prices.
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