About 100 partners have signed up to the new Circular Plastics Alliance. The group is promoting the recycling of plastics across Europe.
The goal is to recycle up to 10m tonnes of plastic each year from 2025.
The alliance, which was set up by the European Commission, covers all areas of the value chain, including manufacturers and processors of plastic, large retailers and various disposal and recycling companies.
The signing ceremony was attended by more than 350 participants, including Frans Timmermans, first vice president of the EU Commission and Elzbieta Bienkowska, the commissioner responsible for (amongst other things) the single market and industry.
The alliance will focus on five primary topics:
- collection and sorting of plastic waste
- product design for recycling
- recycled plastic content in products
- R&D and investments, including chemical recycling
- monitoring of recycled plastics sold in the EU
Operational working groups have been set up to work on ‘concrete solutions’ earlier this year.
The group will further look to ensure that more recycled plastic, up to 10m tonnes, is used across new products. In 2016, four million tonnes was used.
Stakeholders signed voluntary pledges to use or produce more recycled plastics. Many pledges were published, in part or whole.
The Circular Plastics Alliance was originally formed in December 2018.
A list of European business groups taking part in the alliance is available here