EC Consultation: European strategy on plastic waste in the environment

The European Commission has published a Green Paper entitled European strategy on plastic waste in the environment. It poses the question ‘What shall we do about plastic waste?’
The consultation states that “setting up ‘sustainable packaging guidelines’ to which producers and retailers will commit could be a step in the right direction”. It also states that such an initiative could comprise setting parameters for measuring sustainability of packaging, best available techniques for plastic packaging producers, an independent labelling system to measure consumers’ individual footprints, information campaigns raising consumer awareness for plastic hazards and plastic disposal and organising separate collection.
The EC said that the particular challenges posed by plastic waste are not specifically addressed in EU waste legislation at present. The consultation will last until the beginning of June 2013. The result, from the consultation, will feed into further policy action in 2014 as part of a broader waste policy review, which will look in particular at the existing targets for waste recovery and landfill as well as an ex-post evaluation of five directives covering various waste streams (Packaging News, 8 March 2013).