Environment and sustainability - February 2019
The Netherlands - legislation and recycling results
The Council of Ministers has approved (in Dutch) the Economy Circular Implementation Programme 2019-2023 (in Dutch). The government has announced (in Dutch) that companies can get extra help through the Circular Economy Acceleration House (in Dutch). Recently, the PBL (in Dutch) concluded in a report (in Dutch, 4.57 MB) that the many circular NL initiatives are not sufficiently maturing. An amendment (in Dutch) to the Packaging Management Decree has been published in the Government Gazette. It concerns designating standards NEN-EN 13427-13432 to comply with the essential requirements in the EU directive. The government has announced (in Dutch) that more than 70 companies and organisations have signed the Plastic Pact to use 20% less plastic, reuse more plastic and make all new plastic 100% recyclable by 2025. RIVM (in Dutch) will define the indicators for monitoring the objectives. CBL (in Dutch) has announced that supermarkets have agreed to reduce packaging material by 20% by 2025. In order to improve the quality of recycled packaging, the Packaging Waste Fund (in Dutch) and the association of municipalities set up the Chain Optimisation Platform. The KIDV (in Dutch) has received 17 of the 22 Packaging Sustainability Plans for 2019-2022.
On 23 January, the Council of State ruled (in Dutch) that the government must force the businesses to reuse glass. In a debate (in Dutch, 104 kB) the State Secretary indicated that she will start enforcing and within 8 weeks will clarify measures to be taken.
The KIDV has published English versions of 3 documents: the Factsheet (466 kB) on biodegradable plastic packaging materials, the report (2.3 MB) on chemical recycling of plastic packaging and the Recycle Check for rigid plastic packaging (sent to you after you fill in your details) that is used by the Packaging Waste Fund for plastic packaging rate differentiation.
Legislation and recycling results in the rest of the world
Australia: The National Waste Report 2018 (4.34 MB) has been published over the 2016-17 financial year. Belgium: The Walloon Government has sent a draft Decree to the EC, banning the use of certain single-use plastic utensils in public establishments. Czech Republic: Eunomia has published a report determining the costs and implications of a Deposit Refund System designed to deliver a 90% recycling rate. You can download the report after filling in your details. Denmark: The government has published a report (in Danish with an English summary, 1.81 MB) analysing 11 schemes for household waste. France: The government has announced (in French) that fast food chains must provide their plastic strategy by the end of March. Implementation must begin by 1 September. Ireland: The government has announced that it will commission a plan to recover 90% of disposable plastic drink bottles introduced into the market by 2029. The review would consider a deposit and return scheme. UK: In a press release, the government sets out plans to overhaul the waste system. The plans include a tax on plastic packaging with less than 30% recycled content. The Scottish government has published the analysis (1.64 MB) of responses to the deposit return scheme consultation.
Putting packaging waste to use
Researchers at Purdue University have developed a technology that can convert more than 90% of polyolefin waste into many different products, including pure polymers and naphtha. ScienceDaily reports that researchers have developed a new method to convert plastic bags into carbon chips that could be used as anodes for lithium-ion batteries. They report their results in ACS Omega (4.23 MB). Eindhoven University of Technology has joined forces with a number of organisations, including NVC member Oerlemans Packaging (in Dutch), for the project ProLiFeX: research into a closed plastic film chain, aimed at ultimately reducing demand for virgin plastics. FH Campus Wien has published the Circular Packaging Design Guideline. The Guideline will be updated continuously.
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