Circular Plastics Alliance
Circular Plastics Alliance
Making plastics more circular will reduce plastic pollution. This is a priority for the EU. Recycling more plastics is paramount. The Circular Plastics Alliance gathers public and private stakeholders in the plastics value chains to promote voluntary actions and commitments for more recycled plastics. The Circular Plastics Alliance wants to ensure that 10 million tonnes of recycled plastics are used to make products in Europe in 2025.
In the spotlight
Declaration of the Circular Plastics Alliance open for signature
Stakeholders can now apply electronically to sign the declaration and join the alliance.
High-level event of the Circular Plastics Alliance
On 20 September 2019, the Circular Plastics Alliance presented and adopted its declaration in Brussels. See more information on the event
Declaration of the Circular Plastics Alliance
The declaration describes the alliance's vision for more recycled plastics in Europe, as well as the alliance’s commitments to reach the EU target. Namely, that 10 million tonnes of recycled plastics find their way into products in the EU by 2025.
Over 100 companies, business organisations and public authorities already signed the declaration, as well as standardisation bodies and research and technology organisations. See the list of signatories.
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Make or update a pledge
Voluntary pledges by industry
Annex III of the European strategy for plastics set the target that 10 million tonnes of recycled plastics find their way into products in Europe in 2025 (against less than 4 million tonnes in 2016).
To reach this target, the European Commission called on stakeholders to make voluntary pledges to use or produce more recycled plastics. Many pledgers agreed to publish their pledge, in part or entirely. See published pledges on the circular economy stakeholder platform.
In March 2019, the Commission presented its assessment of the 70 pledges received by end 2018 and their overall contribution to the 10 million tonnes target.
First meeting of the Circular Plastics Alliance
30 stakeholder organisations gathered for the first meeting of the Circular Plastics Alliance on 5 February 2019 in Brussels during the EU industry days. Vice-President Katainen chaired the first meeting.
The participants confirmed their commitment to work together along the plastics value chains and ensure that 10 million tonnes of recycled plastics are used to make products in the EU in 2025.
They agreed to work in priority on 5 topics
- Collection and sorting of plastic waste
- Product design for recycling
- Recycled plastic content in products
- R&D and investments, including chemical recycling
- Monitoring of recycled plastics sold in the EU
Operational working groups were set up immediately to work on concrete solutions during spring 2019.
Indicative timeline for the Circular Plastics Alliance
| 5 February 2019 | First meeting of the Circular Plastics Alliance at the European industry days |
| 4 March 2019 | Publication of Commission’s assessment report on the voluntary pledges |
| 5-6 March 2019 | Meeting of the pledgers and panel on plastics at the circular economy stakeholder conference |
| March-June 2019 | Working group's meetings on the 5 priority topics identified at the first meeting of the Circular Plastics Alliance |
| 20 September 2019 | High-level event of the Circular Plastics Alliance |
| 10 October 2019 | Workshop at the European week of regions and cities (Circular Plastics Alliance: what’s in it for regions and cities) |
| November 2019 | First meetings of the working groups |
| December 2019 | First meeting of the steering committee |
Background
The European Commission announced the launch of the Circular Plastics Alliance on 11 December 2018 with the support of First Vice-President Frans Timmermans and Vice-President Jyrki Katainen.
The launch of the Alliance followed the preliminary assessment of pledges (November 2018). This assessment showed that pledges from suppliers of recycled plastics were sufficient to reach and even exceed the EU target of 10 million tonnes of recycled plastics used in Europe by 2025. But pledges received from users of recycled plastics (such as plastics converters and manufacturers) were not sufficient, and action was necessary to bridge the gap between the supply and demand.
Secretariat and contact
The Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs provides secretariat for the Circular Plastics Alliance.