A joint statement from European waste management organisation FEAD and umbrella recycling trade body EuRIC has called for more effort to boost recycled markets.
In response to the recent proposed amendments by the European Parliament Environment Committee, the organisations called for more ‘pull’ mechanisms.
In a statement signed by FEAD secretary general Nadine de Greef and EuRIC secretary general Emmanuel Katrkis, they said: “We believe the revised circular economy package should have proposed a number of regulatory pull measures so as to correct existing market failures.
“For a circular economy to work in practice, waste which cannot be prevented must be capable of being recovered as a useful resource in line with the waste hierarchy.
“This will only happen if the recovery of these waste resources is economically viable at prices which reflect the true cost of collecting them, sorting them, recycling and marketing them to end users.
“It is therefore key to reward the environmental benefits of recycling and level the playing field with virgin materials.”
FEAD and EuRIC called for the following amendments to be introduced by the European Commission as a result:
- Ensure fair competition between virgin and secondary raw materials by financially rewarding the environmental benefits of recycling;
- Introduce minimum recycled content requirements for selected products;
- Introduce minimum green public procurement requirements at EU level to boost purchase of recycled products and materials;
- Amend eco-labelling rules to incorporate indications of recycled content and recyclability.
- Encourage Member States to take fiscal and financial incentives such as lower or zero rate of VAT to favor secondary raw materials which will be re-injected in the economy and products;
- In addition, products need to be designed in order to foster their reparability and recyclability.
