Brussels (Belgium) (AFP) – European nations voted Friday to allow for chemical recycling to play a larger role in the production of plastic bottles, overcoming reservations about the energy-intensive technology. Under EU rules, single-use plastic bottles need to contain at least 25 percent of recycled plastic, with the share set to increase to 30 percent by 2030. Currently, only plastic recycled through mechanical techniques, which involve washing, shredding, and remelting the material, can be used towards the quota.
But representatives for the European Union’s 27 member states voted Friday to extend the same benefit to chemically recycled plastics. The vote follows a proposal put forward by the European Commission aimed at supporting investment in the plastic recycling sector, which is struggling against competition from China and other parts of Asia.
The change “will benefit the plastics industry; they now have consistent and clarified rules to calculate, verify, and report the recycled content,” said Anna-Kaisa Itkonen, a spokeswoman for the European Commission. She defined the vote as a “first milestone for defining rules for chemical recycling at the EU level.” Brussels believes that chemical recycling can help the reuse of certain challenging types of packaging, such as yoghurt pots.
However, environmental groups complain that the process, which involves heating plastics to high temperatures to recycle them, is energy-intensive, more polluting than mechanical techniques, and could serve as a fig leaf for companies to continue producing more plastics. A commission source said there was “strong pressure from industry” to back chemical recycling despite doubts about its benefits. “We see many pilot projects, but at the industrial level, we’re not there yet,” the source noted.
Europe’s recycling sector is under severe pressure, due to an abundant supply of cheap plastics as global production continues to rise. More than half of the plastics produced — 57 percent — come from Asia, with 35 percent coming from China.
© 2024 AFP
