Currently, there is great disparity between member states, with some, like Germany and Denmark, already surpassing the target set out in the single use plastics directive, and others, like France and Hungary, falling short. Maria Spyraki, a Greek lawmaker sitting on the European Parliament’s industry committee, said countries need to “speed up” and have more political will to change. One solution put forward by industry to reach the 2025 target is deposit return schemes (DRS), where the public pay more for a product and the extra is returned to them when they take the packaging to a reverse vending machine.
The hope is that cleaner polyethylene terephthalate (PET) – the higher-grade plastic used for food and drink – is returned to producers, improve recycling rates and reduce the amount of marine waste, 80% of which is plastic. But member states face a huge organisational challenge to introduce deposit return schemes and make them work by 2025. Solutions like deposit return schemes are likely to become necessary following the adoption of the single use plastics directive. Countries not meeting the 77% targets in 2025 may need to implement the system to meet the 2029 target of 90%. “We all need to wake up to reach that 90%,” said Diercxens.
But Larissa Copello de Souza, a campaigner at Zero Waste Europe, said waste collection schemes risked being “locked into” an inefficient system. “DRS alone cannot solve the problem of waste,” she warned. Souza said she wants the deposit return schemes to be further harmonised across the EU in order to ensure greater consistency, avoid cross border issues and allow more companies to take part.
Source: Euractiv
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