European Parliament’s Post

Europe is generating #more #plastic #waste than ever, but the #EU is working to reverse this trend ♻️. While much waste is burned for energy or exported due to capacity, technology, or funding limitations, recycling rates are increasing. Three years ago today, the EU banned single-use plastics like plates and cutlery. Newer rules target reducing plastic packaging waste, such as bottles and single-use containers, and addressing marine litter.

Sustainable environment

The simplest solutions can make the biggest impact!

Just another short reminder about why we should say no to plastics and why we should do it immediately. By 2050, the oceans could contain more plastic than fish by weight. Let's continue the work and find solutions to reduce plastic use, not only on our film sets but also at home. #Sustainability #PlasticFreeJuly #GreenOnSet #EcoFriendly #FilmSetSustainability

🌍 Did You Know? 🤔 🔷 The European Union aims for all plastic packaging on the market to be either reusable or recyclable by 2030. As of now, Europe recycles nearly 30% of its plastic waste, leading the way towards a circular economy. 🔷 Europe is a global leader in e-waste recycling, with some countries achieving recycling rates as high as 85%. This not only reduces the environmental footprint but also recovers valuable materials like precious metals and rare earth elements. 🔷 Did you know that Europe wastes approximately 88 million tons of food annually 😟? However, the EU has committed to halving 📉 per capita food waste at the retail and consumer levels by 2030 📅 as part of its ambitious sustainability goals. 🌱 We can do better! Every effort in improving waste management helps us move closer to a more sustainable future. How is your company contributing to these goals? Share your stories and ideas in the comments! 👇 #WasteManagement #Recycling #Sustainability #EuropeanUnion #CircularEconomy #WasteTransportSolutions #TheMoreYouKnow

A Scary Statistic! Turning off the Single-Use Plastics (SUP) tap is a resolute step, but broader interventions are necessary. The EU's Directive on SUPs outlines several key actions: 🛠️Design Out Waste: Implement product design requirements from the outset to eliminate waste. 🌱Promote Alternatives: In areas with access to sustainable and affordable alternatives, eliminate the use of SUPs. ♻️Clean-Up Obligations: Enforce Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes to hold producers and manufacturers accountable for clean-up. 📢Raise Awareness: Reduce consumption through targeted awareness campaigns for Public 🔖Label Requirements: Introduce labelling to inform consumers about plastic content in products. But also this: �� a 77% separate collection target for plastic bottles by 2025 – increasing to 90% by 2029 RECLAIM will aim to plug this collection gap through our socio-technical fix. Our #HorizonEurope project utilises #AI and #Robotics to better material recovery rates but also encourages citizens to participate in project activities through the Recycling Data Game by providing annotations for plastic waste to be used in deep learning for the retraining of the #AI module. Click here to know more: https://lnkd.in/eZJvrb3M

Do you see it? 👀 By 2050 the oceans could contain more plastic than fish by weight. We want to avoid this. That’s why if sustainable alternatives are easily available and affordable, single-use plastic products cannot be placed on the EU market. To reduce the use of plastics, the EU also introduced: ♻️ Design requirements, such as attached caps to bottles ♻️ Labelling requirements, to inform consumers about the plastic content of products ♻️ Waste management and clean-up obligations for producers Learn more about our work to #BeatPlasticPollution 👉 https://europa.eu/!QRkw8Y

Caring about our environmental impact, especially being careful about our plastic use, can often feel like a lonely uphill battle. Plastic that isn’t thrown in a landfill doesn’t contribute to plastic pollution, but this doesn’t make it better for emissions. Incineration and “chemical recycling” — which turns plastic back into raw petrochemicals for fuel or new plastic — also release huge amounts of greenhouse gases. A 2019 report estimated that plastic incinerated in the Globally, the incineration of plastic packaging (much of it used in food industries) equates to 16 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually. Chemical recycling, which claims to offset some of this by capturing the energy from incineration, still comes out negative because the processes used to break plastic waste into fuel are so energy consuming. #plastics #plasticwaste #chemicalrecycling

Europe produces more than twice as much plastic waste as it recycles. Only in 2021, each EU citizen generated 36.1 kilos of plastic packaging waste. The latest EU rules aim to prevent plastic waste by 2030 and increasing reuse, recycling, and recovery. We propose to: ♻️ increase the percentage of packaging waste recycled from 75% to 90% across the EU population by 2030; ♻️ apply mandatory recycled content targets only for specific packaging materials; ♻️ involve consumers by raising awareness.   Read our opinion to find out more → europa.eu/!xkTVFB   🔍 Data from Eurostat and OECD - OCDE   #EUGreenDeal

😭 It's not just the creation of #plastic that emits greenhouse gases. When plastic is recycled, there are emissions with transport, sorting, cleaning, and reprocessing. This is why we’re calling on the government to set a National Plastic Reduction Target of 20% by 2030. 👉 Sign our petition to show the government there is strong support for action on plastic reductions in Australia: https://bit.ly/49zTpUg #CleanUpAustraliaDay