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High risk that Europe will fail to meet its recycling targets
19 October 2020
There is a good chance that the EU targets for recycling packaging plastic will not be met. Indeed, 50% of all packaging plastic should be recycled by 2025 and 55% by 2030. But the reality can be very harsh, according to an analysis by the European Court of Auditors, EU action to tackle the issue of plastic waste.
Some of the conclusions are as follows:
- plastic is not designed to be optimally recycled
- discarded plastic is not collected properly
- EU recycling capacity is too small
- criminals strike a blow by illegally dumping and exporting plastic waste
And so there are more problems.
Current figures are far too promising
EU Member States reports remarkably high recycling rates. Furthermore, there are considerable differences between countries. What is counted by one country is not taken into account by another. In short, there is no detailed methodology. That is why the EU is now tightening up the rules on what counts as recycling. As a result, a lot of plastic that has been registered as ‘recycled’ will no longer matter. As a result, the percentages will fall, whereas they will have to rise, which will create an unbridgeable gap.
Exports outside the EU no longer count
Plastic packaging waste exported to countries outside the European Union accounted for one-third of all recycling statistics, which was allowed if the recycling took place and was equivalent to that in the EU. However, too often, the plastic that arrived in the receiving countries was not recycled but dumped. These exports will soon no longer be allowed to count towards recycling figures.
Tampering with waste becomes even more attractive
It is lucrative to transport waste illegally or dump it somewhere. The chances of being caught are low, and there is no heavy punishment. For organized crime, tampering with waste has become an even more attractive sport than it already was. Money is laundered relatively quickly, and transport chains are opaque. There is also a lack of investigative capacity.
As a result of the tightened Basel Convention, from 1 January 2021, less plastic will be transported legally to non-EU countries. At the same time, however, the EU’s existing processing capacity is far too tight, which is creating an ever-increasing mountain of European waste. As a result, the risk of criminal activities will increase even further. The report also points out that the environment’s protection is not adequately regulated in criminal law within the EU.
Dutch recycling figures are also much lower in reality
Journalists from the NRC and the international journalists’ collective Lighthouse Reports dived into the shadowy world of recycling. They found illegally dumped Dutch packaging in Turkey and followed the trail back.
The journalists found loopholes in the regulations, and there is also a lack of workforce in Turkey to monitor. Under the stricter European methodology, this exported plastic will soon no longer count towards the recycling figures. But even then, the Dutch recycling figures (the Waste Fund claims a percentage of 79%) remain far too rosy. NRC shows that recyclate (raw material made from discarded plastic) already counts for recycling, while no new products have yet been made. Now big bags with recyclate are piling up in our pastures, as there is no market for it because new (virgin) plastic is cheaper due to low oil prices. In this way, everyone is getting off on the wrong foot.
You might also like:
- Article in NRC, 16 October 2020: ‘Plastic waste. How a Dutch liquorice bag could end up in a Turkish verge’.
- Article in NRC, 19 October 2020: Playing hide and seek with recycled plastic
- Interpol: increase in criminal trafficking in plastic waste
- French citizens’ council: criminalise ecocide
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