Brussels, 07/03/2013 (Agence Europe) - Doing everything possible to prevent 10 million tonnes of plastic particles from ending up in the seas and oceans of the planet every year, as is the case today, is no longer an option but an absolute requirement to safeguard human health, the environment and biodiversity. Janez Potocnik, the European commissioner for the environment, is convinced of this, yet the EU-wide measures to achieve it will not come about overnight. At this stage, the European Commission Green Paper on a European strategy on plastic waste and the environment, which was presented to the press in Brussels on Thursday 7 March (see EUROPE 10799), calls only for a broad debate on the best ways of attacking this scourge. Jeremy Irons, the British director of the documentary film “Trashed”, which aims to raise public awareness of the urgent need for “zero waste” in order to preserve the planet and the quality of life for future generations, stood alongside him. Presentation of the trailer of the film was accompanied by a plea for recycling as the only economically viable way of meeting the challenge, both individually and collectively.
How can we move from putting plastic waste into landfill to recycling it in order to prevent it from ending up in rivers, seas and oceans? How can plastic waste to be reduced and how can we tackle the problem of single-use plastic products? Should the environmental and health cost linked to the omnipresence of this material, which contains chemicals and endocrine disturbers, be included in the price of plastic, a cheap material? These are the main questions out of the 36 contained in the Green Paper, put out for consultation until early June. The results will inform the Commission in drafting new measures scheduled for 2014 in the framework of the re-examination of the objectives laid down by the legislation on the recovery and landfill of waste. For EU legislation on single-use plastic bags, Potocnik confirmed that this was behind time, but that it was indeed being prepared. And it appears that it is no longer a question of banning these bags.
"We want to get everybody's opinion - experts, but also lay people - to tackle one of the most urgent problems. Plastic waste forms 80% of marine pollution, it is mainly particles which are making our seas and oceans into the largest plastic repository in the world. The Green Paper aims to tackle the problem at its root, but also stresses the enormous potential of possibilities opened up in terms of the efficient use of resources to make plastic into a genuinely sustainable raw material. In a circular economy, in which high recycling rates allow us to face the increasing scarcity of materials, I believe that plastic materials have a future”, he explained. To start with, we will have to consider ways to put an end to use of landfill, which continues to be the favoured option for 50% of plastic waste (just as it remains 37% for municipal waste, according to the latest EUROSTAT statistics - EUROPE 10798), in spite of the hierarchy of methods for processing waste laid down by EU legislation (the first priority is for prevention, then re-use, recycling and other means of recovery, with elimination by incineration as the last-resort solution and least desirable). “Landfill taxes should be added to with taxes on energy recovery and we need to find a balance between energy recovery and recycling”, the commissioner said. In answer to a journalist who observed that certain member states are overturning the hierarchy laid down by the legislation by passing off incineration as thermal recovery, which is more environmentally friendly than landfill, Potocnik simply replied that, in the future, the cohesion funds and structural funds would grant co-funding only to installations genuinely pursuing recycling objectives.
Green public procurement, better implementation of the existing legislation on waste management “so that no plastic escapes the processing obligation”, the closure of illegal landfills, more responsible producers designing products which are sustainable for their entire life-cycle, in other words which can be repaired and recycled, and more responsible consumers are also areas for action, along with building environmental costs into prices. “We pay little or nothing for plastic. We have to find a way of making the polluters pay rather than the future generations”, he said. Although there is an urgent need to take measures, the commissioner argues that, initially, increased awareness on the part of all stakeholders is vital and that the trash film has a contribution to make to this, because “it shows that waste is a global problem requiring a global solution”. For this reason, the European Commission and Germany are also to hold a joint international conference on the prevention and sustainable management of waste, in Berlin this April.
“In English, the word trash is both a noun and a verb, therefore action. I hope that the film will draw attention to a situation which is becoming intolerable. I hope it will make certain people think and certain political decision-makers act”, said Jeremy Irons. He also hopes that his film will be shown in schools, because “it is children who can make us change our ways”. He added: “and of course, money can be made out of recycling. This requires us to reorganise, but it also requires determination”. With the plastic carrier bag as a symbol for plastic, he argues that “a small change” - that of taxation - would be enough to get things moving. As to whether this option will harm the poorest people, the director replied: “The sttes which recycle will save”. Instead of the polluter pays principle, he would rather that the slogan “Think before you throw” be brought home to each citizen. (AN/transl.fl)