Circular economy

What changes could have the biggest impact? Read our selection of the most recent updates for July 2023:

Plastic pollution: update on UN negotiations
Re-use and recycling targets: European Commission issues report

Plastic pollution: update on UN negotiations

The second session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) took place in Paris on 3 June. The goal is to develop a legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, which includes the marine environment.

As reported in an earlier edition of COMPASS (see article here), the EU supports the ambitions of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) for a global treaty. The treaty aims at reducing overall plastic consumption, for example by redesigning products to prepare them for reuse and increased recyclability.

The event in Paris was attended by 1,700 participants, including 700 Member State delegates from 169 countries and over 900 observers from NGOs.

Concluding the session, the Chair of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC), Gustavo Adolfo Meza-Cuadra Velasquez was tasked with developing a draft ahead of the next meeting in Nairobi, Kenya in November.

The mandate for the INC is based on UNEP Resolution 5/14 which requested the development of an instrument on plastic pollution, which includes both binding and voluntary approaches. The process is expected to be finalised by the end of 2024.

Re-use and recycling targets: European Commission issues report

The European Commission has released an early warning report that assesses whether Member States are on track to meet the 2025 recycling targets set out in the Waste Framework Directive and the Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste.

The report also provides a preliminary assessment on the target of reducing landfill of municipal waste to less than 10% by 2035.

Member States are required to meet the following targets:

• 55% preparing for re-use and recycling of municipal waste,
• 65% recycling of all packaging waste, and
• material-specific packaging waste recycling targets of 75% for paper and cardboard, 70% for glass, 50% for aluminium, 50% for plastic and 25% for wood.

The Commission’s report evaluates the Member States as follows:

• 9 Member States are on track to meet all targets (Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Slovenia)
• 8 Member States are at risk of missing the municipal waste target only (Estonia, Finland, France, Ireland, Latvia, Portugal, Spain and Sweden), and
• 10 Member States are at risk of missing both the targets for municipal and all packaging waste for 2025 (Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania and Slovakia)

The results of the early warning report are accompanied by specific recommendations for the 18 Member States that are at risk of not achieving the targets.

The Commission will continue to offer technical and financial support to the Member States but calls on national authorities to step up their actions on the ground.