Plastic recycling rates must improve, says EU
Despite recent collapses in waste plastic market supplies, the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers has authorised increases in waste plastics that must be collected and prepared for recycling across the EU.
A new waste management framework directive has been approved boosting minimum recycling rates for plastics and other household wastes, saying that by 2020, the EU’s 27 member states must recycle half (by weight) of this refuse.
The same potentially applies to industrial plastic waste as well, where municipal waste collection is used by companies and “these waste streams are similar to waste from households”, said the legislation.
Also, by 2015 separate waste collection systems must be established for plastics waste, along with paper, metal and glass. Welcoming the legislation, a council communiqué said: “By promoting the use of waste as a secondary resource, the new legislation aims to reduce landfill and greenhouse gas emissions in landfills”.
It also lists compulsory priorities for waste management within national programmes and policies as follows: waste prevention (the preferred option); re-use; recycling materials; recovery (including energy recovery), and safe disposal (only to be used as a last resort), potentially pushing even more plastic into a recycling stream, whose market is currently in deep trouble through mass exports to China ending.