Brussels, 15/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - It is urgent to tackle plastic waste, the volume of which has increased spectacularly over the last decades and half of which is dumped in landfills. It would be appropriate for the most dangerous plastic waste and the use of certain plastic bags to be banned by 2020, the European Parliament states in a resolution adopted by show of hands in Strasbourg on Tuesday 14 January. Approving Vittorio Prodi (ALDE, Italy), the author of an own-initiative report in favour of a European strategy for reducing plastic waste, MEPs underline that this scourge on human health and the land and maritime environment results from insufficient application of the existing legislation on waste and the absence of specific legislation applicable to plastic waste.
“We wish to change bad habits and show we are responsible for our products from their manufacture to their elimination. By doing all we can to make the best use of these products and recycle them we shall be able to give body to the circular economy”, Prodi stressed. On that basis, the Parliament calls on the European Commission to suggest including in the legislation specific and binding objectives for the collection and sorting of up to 80% of waste. Recycling criteria and harmonised collection and sorting criteria should be established in order to create equitable competition conditions. The existing directive relating to packaging and packaging waste (Directive 94/62/EC) should also be re-examined, MEPs say.
Parliament invites the Commission to suggest from this year on proposals aimed at gradually phasing out landfill for recyclable waste by 2020, as well as measures to discourage the incineration of products that can be used for recycling, or that are biodegradable and can be used for compost. Recourse to plastic waste for energy should take place as a last resort, when all other possibilities have been exhausted. MEPs consider that the most harmful plastic waste should be withdrawn from the market and that single-use plastic bags should be banned as far as possible.
MEPs hope, moreover, that the EU will tackle exports and illegal dumping of plastic waste. Currently, only 25% of plastic waste in the EU is recycled. Full implementation of the EU legislation on the recycling of waste would allow €72 billion to be saved each year, would increase the annual turnover of the recycling management sector for EU by €42 billion, and would create over 400,000 jobs by 2020, the Parliament states.
“This resolution clearly establishes our expectations for reform of the European legislative framework. We point out that the most ecological waste is that which is not produced”, the Greens/EFA say. The vote comes in the wake of the Green Paper on a European strategy on plastic waste in the environment published by the Commission on 7 March 2013 (see EUROPE 10801). On 4 November last, the Commission proposed an amendment to Directive 94/62/EC to make it an obligation for the EU28 to take measures of their choice to prevent and reduce the consumption of single-use plastic bags (see EUROPE 10956). (AN/transl.jl)