Set of measures issued by the EU in 2018 to roll out the Action Plan for the Circular Economy.

As a part of the continuous efforts to turn the European economy into a more sustainable one and to implement the ambitious Action Plan for the Circular Economy, in January 2018 the European Commission adopted a new set of measures comprising:

A Europe-wide strategy for the plastic within the Circular Economy, along with a series of annexes, to transform the way in which the plastic products are designed, produced, used and recycled. By 2030, all the plastic packaging should be recyclable. The strategy also remarks the necessity of specific measures, most likely a law instrument, to reduce the impact of the single-use plastic items, particularly to our seas and oceans, even a popular request has been launched. To reduce the leakage of plastics into the environment, the Commission has adopted a new proposal on Port Reception Facilities, to tackle sea-based marine litter and has published a report about the impact of the use of oxo-degradable plastic, including the presence of oxo-degradable bags, on the environment.

A Communication on options to address to the interface between chemicals, products and the legislation on waste which assesses how the rules on waste, chemicals and products are related to each other.

A monitoring framework on the progress towards a Circular Economy at EU and national level. It is composed of a series of ten key indicators covering every stage, i.e. production, consumption, waste management and secondary raw materials as well as economic aspects investments and jobs, and innovation.

A report on critical raw materials and the Circular Economy highlighting the potential to make the use of 27 critical materials in our economy more circular.

The proposed actions will contribute to “close the loop” of product lifecycles through a higher level of recycling and re-use, and will bring profits to both the environment and the economy.

The revised legislation on proposals about waste lays down clear goals to reduce the waste and sets an ambitious and really credible long-term path to the waste management and the recycling. The key elements comprise:

A common EU target for recycling 65% of municipal waste by 2030;

A common EU target for recycling 75% of packaging waste by 2030;

A binding landfill target to reduce landfill to maximum of 10% of municipal waste by 2030;

A ban on landfilling of separately collected waste;

Promotion of economic instruments to discourage landfilling ;

Simplified and improved definitions and harmonized calculation methods for recycling rates throughout the EU;

Concrete measures to promote re-use and stimulate industrial symbiosis – turning one industry’s by-product into another industry’s raw material;

Economic incentives for producers to put greener products on the market and support recovery and recycling schemes (e.g. for packaging, batteries, electric and electronic equipment, vehicles).

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