Law Article The EU strategy against plastic waste

Since the 1960s, plastic has become more central to consumers’ lives. The material is light, hard-wearing, and cheap to produce. It’s used in electronics, cars and planes, in the construction industry, and most often in packaging, which comprises about forty percent of Europe’s plastic use. Over the past fifty years, the global production of plastic has increased twenty times, and estimates predict a renewed doubling in the next twenty years.

In the circular economy, plastic waste often ends up in the sea. The EU is now taking strategic action against plastic pollution.

It is only relatively recent that the environmental effects of our enormous plastic consumption have become a topic of discussion. The plastic pollution of the oceans is probably the most visible. The so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch is now the most famous accumulation of plastic in the ocean. Its size lies somewhere between twice the size of Texas and twice the size of the USA. The effects of this pollution are also catastrophic for the animal world. Animals get caught in larger trash items and die, or they ingest smaller pieces. And the problem will not solve itself. For example, one plastic bottle takes about 400 years to decompose in the ocean.

On land, microplastics – particles which are smaller than five millimetres – are an ongoing problem, even though the actual extent of it has not yet been sufficiently researched. In Europe alone over 25 million tons of plastic waste is generated, and only about a third of it is collected to be recycled.

In January 2018, the EU Commission decided on a strategy for plastics in a circular economy. This strategy will encompass different goals that are meant to be accomplished by 2030: all plastic packaging that is in the EU is either going to be repurposed or recycled in a costefficient way; more than half of the EU’s plastic waste will be recycled; and the sorting and recycling capacities will be doubled in comparison to 2015, which will also lead to the creation of 200,000 new jobs all over Europe. This strategy also foresees that manufacturers of plastic products will commit themselves to producing sustainably. This can be achieved with the help of the so-called Extended Producers Responsibility – according to which producers are both financially and practically responsible for what happens to their products when they have been used up. In order to achieve this, manufacturers will be legally required to take back products and their packaging.

In general, governments, industries, and citizens have to be dedicated to sustainable plastic products. At the same time, the demand for recycled plastic must increase. Many producers are reluctant to use them since they are worried that they won’t be able to meet the requirements of the product. Even before these strategies were decided on, measures on an EU-level had already been taken in order to limit plastic pollution. In 2015, the packaging guidelines were altered in order to systematically lower the number of per head uses of plastic bags in the EU.

A significant decrease of plastic waste and consistent recycling will also help reach the climate protection goals set by the Paris Accords. Recycling a million tons of plastic waste can help lower CO2 emissions to the same extent that removing a million cars from the streets would.

About the Author:

Dr. Béatrice Schütte studied law in Hamburg and Bordeaux. She completed her doctorate at the University of Aarhus in 2014. Her main areas of research are comparative law, liability law, private international law and EU law. She also loves foreign languages.