Sustainable Plastics - April 2020 - 14

Q&A
continued from page 12
countries like Germany and
small countries like Lithuania. .
What other measures can be
taken at the EU level to ensure
that less plastic ends up in the
(marine) environment?
I already mentioned the Directive on Single Use Plastics,
which is addressing 70% of
the litter found on European
beaches. It focuses on the top
10 most littered single-use plastic items. When the Directive is
evaluated in 2027, most of these
items should have already disappeared from the top 10.
The Directive on Port Reception facilities includes measures
to ensure that waste generated
on ships or gathered at sea is
returned to land and adequately managed. On microplastics,
the European Chemical Agency
published a restriction dossier
in January 2019 stating that
health and environmental risks
posed by intentionally added
microplastics such as those
found in cosmetics, paints and
detergents justify an EU-wide
restriction. This dossier is being analysed and an EU-wide
restriction could be in place by
mid-2021. We are also working
on actions to reduce the emissions of microplastics that result from the wear and tear on
products such as tyres, textiles
and pre-production pellets.
The outreach we are doing at
multilateral and bilateral levels
is important as well and, as you
know, the main international institutions and countries like China, India and Canada are taking
action to fight plastic pollution.
There is legislation coming
into force making it mandatory
to have 25% recycled content
in bottles/packaging by 2025.
Also, tethered caps will be a
design requirement. Could you
envision requiring companies to
not only use recycled content,
but also to make their packaging recyclable by establishing
design for recycling guidelines?
There is no doubt that packaging design is key to make the
"quantum leap" in increasing
reuse and recycling of packaging in a circular and climate
neutral economy, where waste
prevention and resource efficiency are priorities.
Existing design for recycling

April 2020

guidelines for packaging established through collaborations
across the packaging value
chain are valuable instruments,
and we encourage producers and brands to make use of
these when (re)designing their
packaging. It will pay off. The
common minimum requirements for extended producer
responsibility (EPR) schemes
provided for in the reviewed
waste legislation should also
drive design for recycling of
plastic packaging. In particular,
the fees producers have to pay
regarding the end of life treatment of their packaging need
to be modulated according to
properties such as recyclability
and reusability.
The waste legislation also
tasks the Commission with looking into reinforcing the "essential
requirements", which packaging
must comply with to be placed on
the EU market, in particular with

valuable resource, but collection
systems are underperforming
in a number of Member States.
And citizens complain that they
are confused about how to sort
their waste due to national, regional and sometimes local
differences in how the systems
are designed. So improving separate collection systems and
better communication are key in
achieving high quality recycling.
That's why as announced in
the European Green Deal, the
Commission will work towards
proposing an EU model for separate waste collection to simplify
waste management for citizens
and ensure cleaner secondary
materials for businesses.
But there are already a number of obligations in place already. Under current European waste legislation, Member
States have to promote consumer information and public
awareness campaigns on is-

The outreach we are doing
at multilateral and bilateral
levels is important as well
and, as you know, the main
international institutions and
countries like China, India and
Canada are taking action to
fight plastic pollution.
Virginijus Sinkevičius
Environment, Oceans and Fisheries
a view to facilitating reuse and
recycling of packaging. Before
presenting possible solutions in
2021 to further improve design
for prevention, re-use and high
quality recycling through our
legislation, we are currently collecting and assessing possible
measures and options, involving
the entire packaging value chain,
from industry, plastic manufacturers, recyclers and converters
to waste management operators.
Much of the public is confused
about whether or not packaging is recyclable, and what bin
it should go into. How can we
ensure that people become
more aware of how to dispose
correctly of their plastic packaging at the end of life?
Separate collection is the
first step in turning waste into a

sues like separate collection,
waste prevention and litter reduction, and they have to mainstream these issues into education and training. In relation
to packaging, Member States
have to ensure that consumers
have the necessary information
about the return, collection and
recovery systems available to
them, their role in contributing
to reuse, recovery and recycling of packaging and packaging waste and the meaning of
marking on packaging existing
on the market.
But of course that message
has to reach the public, it has to
happen in practice. We're working to ensure that it happens.
We will soon publish guidance
on the implementation of separate collection obligations to
prevent cross-contamination,

and retaining high safety standards for recycled materials.
What are your views on biobased plastics? And biodegradable plastics? It has been
shown that the CO2 emissions
associated with these materials are far lower than for
fossil-based plastics. Could
these materials in some cases
be a sustainable alternative to
conventional plastics?
I believe bio-based and biodegradable plastics have their
place on the market, and have
a role to play in building a
more sustainable plastics value
chain. However, before endorsing these solutions, we need
to clarify a number of issues.
Bio-based plastics can help us
reduce our dependency on fossil fuels, but the sustainability
claims of these plastics need
to be verified. In the EU Plastics Strategy, the Commission
committed itself to understand
better their life-cycle impacts,
including CO2 emissions and
land use impacts.
Biodegradable plastics bring
different challenges. We need
to clearly distinguish between
plastics that can degrade in
specific industrial composting
facilities, after being separately
collected, and others that claim
to biodegrade in the open environment. Labelling a product
as 'biodegradable' should neither lead to a "license to litter",
nor any other consumer confusion. If wrongly disposed of,
compostable or biodegradable
plastics can cause problems for
recycling when mixed with other plastics; or "normal" plastics
could end up in the bio-waste
stream. It should also be clear
under which environmental
conditions and timeframe these
plastics actually degrades.
Biodegradability in different
marine environments remains
difficult, and there is no accepted EU technical standard
to certify this. In the Plastics
Strategy, the Commission committed itself to identifying applications for compostable and
biodegradable plastics with
clear environmental benefits,
and to provide consumers with
clear and correct information.
Several studies are ongoing,
including an opinion on the use
of biodegradable plastics in the

Sustainable Plastics - April 2020

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