Wish list to help create ‘a true’ Circular Economy

Europe – Key European recycling companies and associations have presented a ‘wish list of principles’ that they are requesting for inclusion in any set of new measures and legislative instruments put in place to help speed up transition to what they call ‘a true’ Circular Economy within the EU.

The wish list has been drawn up by the European Recycling Industries’ Confederation (EuRIC), the electronics recyclers body EERA, the British Plastics Federation and recycling companies MBA Polymers, Axion Polymers, Galloo and Müller-Guttenbrunn Group.

One of the wishes put forward by these companies and industry bodies is that procurement and transboundary shipment of complex mixes of raw materials for the production of secondary raw materials by compliant recyclers should be made easier, quicker and cheaper. This could be achieved by, among other measures, installing so-called Fast-Track Notification procedures that ‘should be developed to allow these compliant recyclers to get better access to these complex input materials from other countries within the EU’.

Going back to the May issue of Recycling International, Chris Slijkhuis of Müller-Guttenbrunn – one of the initiators of the wish list – called for such Fast-Track Notification as a tool for speeding up scrap shipment procedures and thereby helping ‘make the Circular Economy work’.

The parties behind the wish list note that, under extended producer responsibility legislation, the focus is placed on the ‘polluter pays’ principle by making branded manufacturers and importers share the financial burden entailed by the costs of collection and recycling. ‘The current legislative measures have already placed high and ambitious targets on the percentage of end-of-life products that must be recycled or recovered,’ it is stressed. ‘However, this arm’s-length approach to ”end-of-life” has failed to create a circular flow of recycled materials back into new products. The disconnect between the return flow of materials – take-back, collection and recycling – and the design, procurement and sales of new durable products can be seen as the ”missing link” in the Circular Economy.’

The recycling companies and bodies believe this is ”hampering” in particular the development of the new industry of post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastics from complex wastes from durable products such as cars and electronics. Furthermore, recyclers are calling for ‘realistic thresholds for substances of concern’ and for ‘a continuous exchange of views’ between the legislator and the recycling industry if changes are planned, enabling the further development of the Circular Economy for PCR plastics in Europe.

Apart from Fast-Track Notification procedures, recyclers want the focus of any new measures to be on ‘pulling the demand’ for PCR plastics ‘in order to convert the linear supply chain to a circular material flow model’. This could be achieved by public green procurement rules to enforce a change towards products that contain well-defined quantities of PCR plastics. Another tool would be to push EU member states to ‘implement positive, reward-based drivers to make product manufacturers specify and use PCR plastics’.