APPLiA, is among the more than 100 signatories from companies, associations, national authorities and NGOs along the plastics value chain, that have signed the Circular Plastics Alliance Declaration, a special program to reduce plastic waste and promote recycling plastics. By signing this declaration, APPLiA, representing the home appliances manufacturers in Europe, pledges to support an inclusive EU Plastics Strategy involving all players in the plastic value chain.
«We have the opportunity to make EU industry a world leader in recycled plastics – underlined Elżbieta Bieńkowska, Commissioner for Single Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs -improving the environment and helping EU to compete globally. I strongly believe that the 10 million tons target for recycled plastics is within reach.»
The potential of the Alliance lies indeed in the involvement of all key industry stakeholders in the value chain, leveraging on circular economy as the model to follow to achieve substantial results. The need for increased recycling and reuse of plastics in Europe is not something that can be tackled on a singular basis, but it demands instead the mobilisation of stakeholders at all levels and sectors. The declaration endorses the 10 million tons target and calls for a shift to zero plastic waste in nature and zero landfilling. It lays out concrete actions to reach the target, including: improving the design of plastic products to make them more recyclable and integrate more recycled plastics; identifying untapped potential for more plastic waste collection, sorting and recycling across the EU, as well as the investment gaps; building a Research & Development agenda for circular plastics; establishing a transparent and reliable monitoring system to track all flows of plastic waste in the EU.
The Circular Plastic Alliance Declaration was conceived to find concrete actions and solutions to the EU potential for recycling plastic waste that, according to the Commission data, is still largely unexploited, particularly in comparison with other materials like paper, glass or metals. Out of over 27 million tons of plastic waste collected in Europe every year, less than one third goes to recycling plants. As a result, in 2016, less than 4 million tons of recycled plastics were sold in Europe, accounting for barely 8% of the EU market for plastics. By endorsing the EU target of 10 million tons of recycled plastics sold in the EU by 2025, the Circular Plastics Alliance commits to helping boost the EU market for recycled plastics by more than 150%.
The participants to the Circular Plastics Alliance agreed to work on five topics as a priority: collection and sorting of plastic waste; product design for recycling; recycled plastic content in products; R&D and investments, including chemical recycling; and monitoring of recycled plastics in the EU.
