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Preventing Plastic Waste in Europe

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Preventing Plastic Waste in Europe EEA Report No 02/2019 Preventing plastic waste in Europe ISSN 1977‑8449 1994-2019 EEA Report No 02/2019 Preventing plastic waste in Europe 1994-2019 Cover photo: © Allen Giuseppe Amore, Picture2050/EEA Legal notice The contents of this publication do not necessarily reflect the official opinions of the European Commission or other institutions of the European Union. Neither the European Environment Agency nor any person or company acting on behalf of the Agency is responsible for the use that may be made of the information contained in this report. Copyright notice © European Environment Agency, 2019 Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged. More information on the European Union is available on the Internet (http://europa.eu). Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2019 ISBN 978‑92‑9480‑194‑4 ISSN 1977‑8449 doi:10.2800/096909 REG.NO. DK-000244 European Environment Agency Kongens Nytorv 6 1050 Copenhagen K Denmark Tel.: +45 33 36 71 00 Web: eea.europa.eu Enquiries: eea.europa.eu/enquiries Contents Contents Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................... 4 Key messages .............................................................................................................................. 5 Executive summary .................................................................................................................... 6 1 Waste prevention and plastics ............................................................................................ 8 1.1 Environmental issues and plastics ........................................................................................ 9 1.2 Objective ................................................................................................................................... 9 1.3 Review methodology ............................................................................................................10 1.4 Policy background .................................................................................................................10 1.5 Definitions ..............................................................................................................................11 2 The plastics life cycle .......................................................................................................... 12 2.1 The plastics value chain ........................................................................................................12 2.2 Plastic consumption in Europe and the world ...................................................................13 2.3 Plastic waste management in Europe ................................................................................14 2.4 Plastic waste decoupling ......................................................................................................15 3 Plastic waste prevention in the waste prevention programmes of EEA countries 18 3.1 Waste prevention programmes and plastic waste ...........................................................18 3.2 Policy instruments and measures .......................................................................................19 3.3 Good practice examples .......................................................................................................20 3.4 Targets ....................................................................................................................................24 3.5 Indicators ................................................................................................................................24 4 Key findings, policy options and future prospects .......................................................... 28 4.1 Key findings ............................................................................................................................28 4.2 Conclusions and policy options ...........................................................................................28 4.3 Future prospects ...................................................................................................................31 Abbreviations and acronyms .................................................................................................. 32 References ................................................................................................................................. 33 Annex 1 ...................................................................................................................................... 35 Annex 2 ...................................................................................................................................... 38 Annex 3 ...................................................................................................................................... 39 Annex 4 ...................................................................................................................................... 41 Preventing plastic waste in Europe 3 Acknowledgements Acknowledgements This report was prepared by the European The report has benefited greatly from the comments Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Topic and feedback that were received from EEA member Centre on Waste and Materials in a Green Economy countries, cooperating countries and other partners (ETC/WMGE) in cooperation with the EEA and the during a survey conducted in 2018 and a final European Environment Information and Observation consultation process that took place in early 2019. Network (Eionet) countries. Lead authors This is the fifth and last EEA report in a series of annual reviews of waste prevention programmes Henning Wilts (ETC/WMGE), in Europe, as stipulated in the European Union Ioannis Bakas (EEA) (EU) Waste Framework Directive (EU, 2008). The Directive was revised in 2018 and now frames a different context for the EEA's work on waste Contributions prevention, which will be reflected in a new series of biannual waste prevention reports in the Dirk Nelen, Kévin Le Blevennec, Ulrike Meinel, Bettina future. This year's review focuses on plastic waste Bahn‑Walkowiak, Mona Arnold (all ETC/WMGE) prevention and covers 37 national and regional waste prevention programmes that had been Lars Fogh Mortensen, Almut Reichel, adopted by the end of 2018. Daniel Montalvo (EEA) 4 Preventing plastic waste in Europe Key messages Key messages The use of plastics is increasingly • Within the mapped measures, 25 are regulatory recognised as a significant global and refer mainly to measures banning environmental issue: micro‑plastics, micro‑beads and some types of single‑use plastics. • Demand for plastics is increasing rapidly worldwide. In 2017, the demand for plastics in the 28 EU • The review of the measures taken by countries Member States stood at almost 52 million tonnes, up revealed that 37 of the 173 measures identified from 46 million tonnes in 2010. Global production of are market based. The majority of the plastics reached 348 million tonnes in 2017, an extra market‑based instruments referred to fees for 13 million tonnes compared with the year before. plastic carrier bags. • Plastic production has harmful impacts on the • A total of 30 voluntary agreements on plastic environment and climate. Estimates put the waste prevention have been initiated in different contribution of plastic production and plastic waste forms with different sets of stakeholders across incineration globally at 400 million tonnes of the countries reviewed. They often include carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) annually. specific targets that are monitored by internal or external parties. • Almost one fifth of the global plastics production of 335 million tonnes was produced in Europe. • Only nine countries have explicit waste prevention targets included in their prevention • Plastics are mainly used in packaging and in the programmes. Clear and common targets are building and construction sectors. still lacking for most product groups and thus the levels of activity and ambition clearly differ • In 2016, 31.1 % of plastic waste was recovered in among the countries. Europe — but only 63 % of the recovery took place in Europe — and only about 6 % of the current • The good practice examples include both regulatory European demand for plastics was covered by initiatives such as a ban on certain plastic domestic recycled or secondary plastics. products and softer measures such as stakeholder agreements to reduce the consumption of plastic Plastic waste prevention can offer products (mainly packaging), and training and solutions in reducing environmental capacity building. Unfortunately, there are very few pressures from plastic consumption. cases in which the initiatives adopted have been Countries are responding by taking waste properly evaluated. prevention measures: The road ahead involves intensifying • Plastic waste is declared a priority waste stream by countries' waste prevention efforts: nearly half of the countries investigated. • Prevention of the most impactful plastic types, • Of the 173 waste prevention measures identified, plastic products that are designed to be used once 105 cover the production phase of plastic products and for a very short time (the so‑called 'single‑use and 69 cover the consumption phase. plastics') and non‑recyclable plastic products should be prioritised. • With the exception of national legislative requirements, such as the levy on plastic carrier • Although the example of the
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