The Rethink Plastic Alliance is advocating for a CE Act that truly rises to the challenge and reflects the urgent need to reduce, reuse and recycle materials. Concerningly, the Call for Evidence suggests that the Commission’s main focus is on downstream measures. While we acknowledge and support the need to improve recycling in the EU, we are calling for a CE Act that accurately reflects the waste hierarchy and therefore also includes strong measures on waste prevention and reuse, while ensuring material loops are toxic-free.
Rethink Plastic provides feedback on the Environmental Omnibus
Input from the Rethink Plastic alliance on the Commission’s initiative to simplify and streamline administrative requirements related to the environment in the areas of waste, products, and industrial emissions.
Open Letter calling for well-designed reuse systems in the PPWR revision
We, the signatories of this letter (civil society organisations and reuse businesses across Europe), are concerned that misinformation and intense lobbying from the single-use packaging industry and the take-away sector are undermining the need for reuse as a driver for waste prevention, resource
conservation and climate protection in the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR).
This regulation represents a critical opportunity for the much-needed transition towards more circular
packaging systems at a time where it is crucial to tackle emissions, pollution and resource use in all
sectors. The focus of decision-makers should remain firmly on the key objective of the PPWR,
which is reducing packaging waste and improving the environmental performance of this increasingly wasteful sector.
Fact sheet: Reusable Take-away Packaging
7 reasons why reusable take-away packaging is a sustainable alternative for climate protection and resource conservation.
How standards can unleash the power of harmonised containers and help curb plastic pollution – Infographic
Letter to the European Commission to stop the development of an overarching standardisation request
Letter to Commissioners Breton and Sinkevicius: Request to cease development of Standardisation Request on “plastics recycling and recycled plastics”
The Truth Behind Trash: the scale and impact of international trade in plastic waste – EIA report
Until the mid-1950s, plastics were precious commodities that were used and treated carefully. But in just 65 years, plastic production has increased by 18,300 per cent – fuelling a relentless convenience lifestyle that produces enormous and unnecessary quantities of waste.
The global trade in plastic waste has mirrored the growth in global plastic production, allowing high income, high-consuming countries to avoid the direct social and environmental impacts of their plastic problem and driving the ever-expanding production and consumption of virgin (new) plastics.
Extended Producer Responsibility and Ecomodulation of Fees: Report
A new report from the Ecologic Institute, commissioned by the Rethink Plastic alliance outlines why extended producer responsibility and “ecomodulation”- charging differentiated fees based on the sustainability of a product or packaging – can be a key opportunity for waste prevention across Europe.