The Commission has registered a new European citizens' initiative ‘ReturnthePlastics: A Citizen’s Initiative to implement an EU-wide deposit-system to recycle plastic bottles’.

The organisers of the ‘ReturnthePlastics: A Citizen’s Initiative to implement an EU-wide deposit-system to recycle plastic bottles’ initiative call on the Commission to present a proposal to:

• implement an EU-wide deposit-system to recycle plastic bottles,
• incentivise all EU Member States that supermarkets (chains) which are selling plastic bottles install reverse vending machines for recycling the plastic bottles after being purchased and used by the consumer, and
• make the plastic bottle producing companies pay plastic taxes for the recycling and deposit-system of the plastic bottles (under the principle that the polluter should pay).

This is the seventh new initiative that is registered in 2021.