Subtopic 1: Plastic Europe?

Let’s start with the hard data. Average global plastic consumption is 45 kg per person per year, with Western Europe accounting for 136 kg per person per year (Plastics Insight, 2016). In 2020, 367 million tons of plastics were produced globally, 55 million tons of which were produced in Europe, accounting for 15% of global plastics production (Material Economics, 2021). The dynamics of plastics production on our continent is starting to slow down. In 2017, Europe produced 64.4 million tons, 9.5 million tons less than in 2020. Globally, growth momentum also came to a temporary halt in 2020. The numbers speak for themselves.

Due to its negative impact on the environment, the European Parliament in late March 2019 adopted a directive banning the sale of single-use products made of plastic within the European Union (European Commission, source). Through the EU’s Directive on single-use plastics, the production and use of such plastic products as food containers, beverage cups, plastic cutlery, plates, straws, wet wipes, sanitary pads and filtered tobacco products, among others, will be restricted within the European Union. These products will have to be replaced by biodegradable alternatives. Biodegradable plastics are plastics with innovative molecular structures that can be decomposed by bacteria at the end of their life under certain environmental conditions. Not all bio-based plastics are biodegradable while some plastics made from fossil fuels actually are (source).  In addition, starting in 2025, plastic caps and lids will be allowed on the market only if they are permanently attached to bottles and containers. Starting in 2025, all plastic bottles must be made of at least 25 percent recycled materials, and 30 percent from 2030 (European Commission, 2021, source).

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Banning the landfill of plastics is a major challenge for some EU member states, especially those with significant delays and problems in implementing EU waste directives and where the primary method of waste disposal is landfilling such as Spain (23,079,929 m³ of landfilled waste), France (17,811,966 m³ of landfilled waste) Italy (16,304,852 m³ of landfilled waste), and Poland (10,034,746 m³ of landfilled waste), (source). The most important events in the context of the debate on the state of the environment in Europe are the IdentiPlast conferences, which are part of the European program run by PlasticsEurope (source).

They are aimed at increasing the recovery of plastic waste and leading to the abandonment of their storage in landfills. They have been organized since 1997, initially in Brussels, and since 2010 they have been organized in other European capitals. The theme of the IdentiPlast conference in Vienna, “Plastic Waste in a Closed-Circuit Economy,” was the exchange of experiences between European and non-European countries, including the US, Japan and Turkey, to improve and increase the efficiency of plastic waste management, especially in countries with inefficient waste management.