Plastic waste disposal is one of several concerns for business to slowly emerge as the European Commission is now in the process of unveiling several proposals related to the overhaul of current EU waste legislation.
The Commission is attaching importance to giving plastic a financial value
A Green Paper on a European Strategy on plastic waste in the environment was recently published to start a policy debate about how to make plastic products more sustainable throughout their lifecycle, in particular by reducing the environment imprint of plastic and plastic-derived waste.
This Green Paper launches a public consultation addressed to industry stakeholders among others, to collect facts and informed viewpoints on the impacts of plastic waste at disposal stage as well as map out potential ways to reduce plastic waste.
The Green Paper argues for more sustainable methods of plastic production in Europe. There is considerable room for resource savings if current landfilling rates for plastic waste could be reduced. The Green Paper specifically highlights how plastic landfilling rates remain particularly high in several member states due to lack of suitable alternatives, namely recycling and affordable energy recovery methods using plastic waste.
The Commission advocates that ideally all plastic products should be fully recyclable and at reasonable cost. In this regard, the Green Paper raises the issue of how best to deploy “economic instruments” to influence the way plastic producers, converters, retailers and ultimately consumers of plastic products would be induced; particularly to resort to more resource-efficient methods for their plastic manufacturing processes, waste disposal and recycling.
Influencing consumer behaviour is indeed one important way of contributing towards a reduction of plastic waste disposed in the environment. For instance, the idea to shape the demand for biodegradable plastic products also emerges in the Green Paper with the Commission floating the possibility of mandating environmental performance indicators such as recyclability and compostability on the plastic content of a product. Equally, the Commission is attaching significant importance to the idea of giving plastic a financial value since it is all too often considered a cheap material.
The main proposition is to encourage the use of deposit-and-return schemes incentivising consumers to recover the financial value of their plastic products. Schemes for the return of PET plastic bottles are cited as examples by the Commission. For business, the propositions on shaping consumer behaviour towards a more resource-efficient use of plastic products would, of course, entail extra compliance costs.
However, these could be off-set if the right fiscal incentives are put in place coupled with an effective plastic waste management strategy promoting effective product recycling and waste-to-energy recovery projects.
For more information on EU business affairs, contact the Malta Business Bureau at info@mbb.org.mt or call 2125 1719.
Omar Cutajar is the Malta Business Bureau’s permanent delegate in Brussels.