Circular Plastics Alliance: A step closer to 10 million tonnes of recycled plastics

Those delivered actions pursue the Alliance’s objective: to reach the target of 10 million tonnes of recycled plastics used in products by 2025. They include a work plan on design-for-recycling of plastic products, which lists 19 plastic products that the Alliance will make more recyclable; a report on collected and sorted plastic waste in the EU, presenting the current state of play; and an R&D agenda for circular plastics. Commissioner for Internal Market, Thierry Breton, said: “We need concerted action by all actors along the value chain to deliver the circular economy for plastics. Despite the impact of coronavirus in particular on plastics recyclers and plastics converters, the business case remains clear. I welcome the commitment and great work done by the Circular Plastics Alliance to achieve the 10 million tonnes target.” As a next step, in January 2021, the CPA will deliver three more actions, including a monitoring system to track the plastics materials flows in Europe; a report on the untapped potential for more collection, sorting and recycling of plastic waste and the necessary improvements to reach the 10 million tonnes target; and a mapping of the related investment needs. The European Commission announced the launch of the Circular Plastics Alliance in December 2018. The launch followed the preliminary assessment of industry voluntary pledges for more recycled plastics. It showed that pledges from suppliers of recycled plastics were sufficient to reach and even exceed the EU target of 10 million tonnes of recycled plastics used in Europe by 2025. However, pledges received from users of recycled plastics (such as plastics converters and manufacturers) were not sufficient, and action was necessary to bridge the gap between the supply and demand.