Politics

Today the European Parliament Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) voted on the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR).

The European plastic recycling industry is facing pressing challenges as the demand for recycled polymers dwindles to its lowest point recently.

According to Plastics Recyclers Europe, the plastics recycling market in Europe has been heavily destabilised throughout 2023.

The national BEHG-taxation on CO2 emissions brings new costs to the German EfW-industry from early next year.

This year’s special edition of the European Recycling Conference cast a spotlight on the future of car recycling, considering the European Commission’s recently proposed End-of-Life Vehicles (ELV) Regulation, a game-changer for the automotive industry.

The EU has a surplus in waste incineration capacities and a moratorium on new incinerators must be considered, urges a new report by the environmental network Zero Waste Europe.

The RDF Industry Group has called for the UK government to commit to putting fiscal measures in place to ensure that, under incoming emissions rules in the UK, RDF Exports are subject to equivalent carbon costs to those that will be paid by UK incinerator operators.

The European Recycling Industries’ Confederation has issued recommendations for an EU circular economy. In it, Euric suggests exploring chemical recycling when no better recycling alternative available.

Some of the most regressive actors in the packaging value chain, such as single-use paper packaging producers and McDonald’s, have been conducting a massive lobbying campaign to greenwash single user paper as a sustainable alternative to single-use plastics.

EuRIC welcomes the ITRE committee’s adoption of the Report on Critical Raw Materials, which reflects the recycling industry’s concerns and recommendations.

Reusable take-away packaging could present a compelling climate case over single-use alternatives if return and washing systems are properly implemented and optimised, according to a new study today from Zero Waste Europe, Reloop, and Tomra.