PlasticsEurope welcomes EU Parliament report on plastics waste

„Building momentum for an effective European strategy on plastic waste”

PlasticsEurope welcomes the vote of the European Parliament on the own-initiative report "European Strategy on Plastic waste in the Environment" and commends this initiative as a potentially effective way to help tackle the problem of irresponsible disposal of waste. This report positively feeds into the plastics industry initiative "Zero Plastics Waste to Landfill by 2020", which was launched in 2010.

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Commenting on the report, Karl-H. Foerster, Executive Director of PlasticsEurope, underlined the importance of treating waste as a valuable resource. "Plastics are a too valuable resource to be carelessly discarded or buried in landfills, as such we call for a strong enforcement of the current EU waste legislation to reduce to zero the amount of recyclable and high-calorific waste going to landfill", he said.

PlasticsEurope supports the focus on increased collection as being the core to achieving higher recovery targets. Regarding energy recovery, PlasticsEurope believes that this should remain a preferable option to landfill when recycling is not a sustainable alternative. "Energy recovery is presented as a complementary option for those plastics that cannot be sustainably recycled as plastics waste is not a homogeneous material", Mr Foerster concluded.

More information: www.plasticseurope.org

PlasticsEurope AISBL, Brussels, Belgium