In Europe, recyclers and Parliament side by side

The European association of plastics recyclers, Plastics Recyclers Europe (PRE), supports the EU Parliament strategy on plastics waste management, approved on January 14, 2014. Such a strategy, known as "Prodi report", should path the way for more plastics recycling and enable the Commission to propose ambitious legislations.
"The voted report is a further step towards market changes that have been pushed by the political representatives of EU citizens. In this report the Members of the European Parliament have perfectly understood the issues limiting plastics recycling. Now the European Commission has the support of the Parliament to make ambitious legislative proposals which will enable an enhanced sustainability for plastics products", said Ton Emans, president of Plastics Recyclers Europe.
The association also welcomes that the report highlights the challenges of bioplastics. On one hand, bioplastics could be an opportunity for plastics products. On the other hand, the report underlines that the sustainability of biosourced materials must be evaluated and that an end-of-life solution for biodegradable plastics must be implemented at EU level if such plastics are to continue to appear on the market. Finally, due to changing legislations and markets recycling of long life applications is more challenging than for short life applications. PRE is eager to support initiatives willing to overcome barriers which currently restrict recycling of these long life applications.