EuRIC, the European Recycling Industries Confederation, FEAD and CEWEP collaborate and sign open letter to the European Commission to put the Green Deal and the new Circular Economy Action Plan at the forefront of the economic recovery plan for Europe post-COVID-19.
According to the BMRA, ‘Cinzia VEZZOSI, President of EuRIC, said in a statement issued together with the joint call – the key role played by Europe’s recycling industry in turning waste into valuable raw materials while saving greenhouse gas emissions and energy. For EuRIC President, it is vital to use the momentum of the post-COVID-19 crisis to direct a significant part of massive public investments towards circular industrial value chains and infrastructures needed to make Europe climate-neutral by 2050.’
Among the priorities set in the new Circular Economy Action Plan, the signatories would like to stress the absolute need to:
- Lay down measures to stimulate the demand for secondary raw materials in products through recycled content and green public procurement, incentives rewarding value chains that contribute to save GHG and energy to bridge circular economy and climate policy;
- Further strengthen the internal market and, in particular, fasten the creation of a well-functioning EU market for secondary raw materials thanks to simplified waste shipment procedures and EU-wide end-of-waste criteria;
- Speed up work on eco-design to ensure that tomorrow’s products will last longer and be easier to recycle when reaching end-of-life;
- Enhance investment certainty by implementing current recycling targets with the necessary financial support for countries lagging behind and consider the setting up of targets for industrial and commercial waste;
- Resume a fact-based discussion on proper treatment of residual waste¹ in Europe, which cannot be recycled, through energy-recovery or final disposal².
To read the full letter click here
¹The role of waste-to-energy in the circular economy, COM(2017) 34 final
²CEWEP, June 2019, Residual waste treatment capacity calculations for 2035
Source: www.recyclemetals.org