Achieving ambitious mandatory recycled content targets for plastic packaging under the PPWR requires a functioning and defragmented European plastics recycling market. Therefore, EuRIC calls for avoiding measures that have the exact opposite effect when finding a common position in the trialogue. Removing waste entries EU3011 and EU48 would increase the administrative burden by requiring unnecessary notifications for many plastic waste shipments and jeopardise the competitiveness of the EU recycling industry. When competing with virgin raw materials, a level playing field for recycled plastics also requires minimising the cost of notifications within the EU. In addition, a mandatory recycled content target for all plastics will be essential to ensure investment stability and planning certainty for the industry.
Moreover, the establishment of EU harmonised end-of-waste criteria is crucial for better re-introduction of high-quality recycled products (e.g., pellets, powders and flakes) into new products and will be key to the development of the European recycling industry.