Politics

| Countries that implement stringent environmental policies do not lose export competitiveness when compared against countries with more moderate regulations, according to a new OECD study that examines trade in manufactured goods between advanced and emerging economies.

| 160 experts and leaders from the entire PET value chain in Europe and beyond met at the 2016 Petcore Europe sold-out conference in Brussels on 23 February.

| The European Organization for Packaging and the Environment(EUROPEN) has made some recommendations on the EU legislative proposals for the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive and Waste Framework Directive.

| A new publication provides essential guidance to all actors in the supply chain through simple ecodesign rules for paper products, without limiting innovation and the introduction of new techniques.

| If an ambitious announcement is made, it is bound to raise high expectations. Now the EU Commission will have to live with the fact that it was unable to fulfil these expectations with its new circular economy package. Nevertheless, the package is not a total failure, quite the contrary.

| The European Recycling Industries’ Confederation (EuRIC) voices European steel recyclers’ position against Market Economy Status for China (MES).

| CECED, DIGITALEUROPE, EERA and the WEEE Forum call on the European Commission to prepare an Implementing Regulation in accordance with the provisions laid down in article 8.5 of the Directive, that would oblige Member States to require mandatory compliance to the EN 50625 Series for all WEEE treatment facilities in the EU.

| BIR’s leaders made prominent contributions to the annual conference of the Metal Recycling Association of India (MRAI), held last week in New Delhi. BIR President Ranjit Baxi and Director General Alexandre Delacoux were invited to add the international dimension by addressing this important gathering of around 800 business people involved in recycling.

| According to Business waste, the UK's Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has held a conference and appealed to industry associations in a re-evaluation of its targets set for business packaging recycling.

| According to a report by the World Economic Forum, Ellen MacArthur Foundation and McKinsey, applying circular economy principles to global plastic packaging flows could transform the plastics economy and drastically reduce negative externalities such as leakage into oceans.

| In 2014, 84% of the 25 billion pounds of toxic chemical waste managed at the nation's industrial facilities was not released into the environment due to the use of preferred waste management practices like recycling, energy recovery and treatment, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) annual Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) report.

| According to the Norwegian Environment Agency, Norway has generated 11.2 million tonnes of waste in 2013. This was an increase of 5 per cent from the year before. Since 1995, the total waste volume in Norway has increased by more than 50 per cent.

| The European Recycling Industries Confederation (EuRIC) voiced European steel recyclers’ views during a side-event of the United Nations conference on climate change COP21.

| The European Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB) announced changes to EU financial tools today to help circular economy projects and businesses secure funding and support the realisation of EU climate goals, as UN climate negotiations draw to a close in Paris. The changes build on the EU’s Circular Economy Strategy launched last week and result from EIB recommendations published today at the Financing the Circular Economy conference hosted under Luxembourg’s Presidency of the EU.