A draft report on the European Union’s new directive for end-of-life vehicles (ELV) is proposing watered down quotas for recycled plastic in new vehicles.
It was approved by the European Parliament on Feb. 6 at first reading, the first of many steps to its potential approval.
The draft report was prepared by MEPs Jens Gieseke (ENVI committee) and Paulius Saudargas (IMCO committee). It proposes amendments to the European Commission’s proposed regulation, including reducing recycled plastic content target in new vehicles from 25% to 20%. It also proposes that 15%, rather than the previous 25%, of this recycled content is achieved from end-of-life vehicles in a closed-loop.
Importantly, the changes say post-industrial plastic and bio-based plastic may count towards the targets.
The rapporteurs also explicitly added chemical recycling as an option to consider when choosing between the ‘best available recycling technologies’ to calculate recycled plastic content.
Justifying their amendments, the rapporteurs cautioned ‘against setting overly ambitious targets that the industry struggles to meet due to material shortages or technological limitations’. They said the proposed new targets are ‘reasonable and realist…according to what is feasible for the industry’.
The report stresses that the feasibility of the plastic targets should be reviewed according to an impact assessment based on technology, including chemical recycling, availability, and quality of recycled plastic.
Reacting to the vote, the European Recycling Industries’ Confederation (EuRIC) and the European Waste Management Association (FEAF) expressed ‘deep concerns’ over the watered-down targets.
“Even more concerning, the inclusion of biobased plastic and pre-consumer plastic waste in meeting these targets significantly hampers the plastic recycling sector, by diverting attention and resources sway from actual recycling efforts,” the associations said in a statement.
They also expressed concern over the ‘unbalanced focus on chemical recycling, treating it as a silver bullet while sidelining mechanical recycling and existing innovations’.
Now that the text has been approved at first reading, it will be sent to the Council where it can be approved without changes, making it law, or be further amended, triggering a second reading. This process may continue back and forth for up to a third, conciliatory, reading, when the proposal would finally be approved or rejected.