EU still relies on poorer nations to deal with its plastic waste
Brussels/Paris — Europe has pushed back a deadline for companies to volunteer to increase their use of recycled plastics in lieu of regulation, showing how hard it is to end the continent’s reliance on developing countries dealing with its waste. The pledges were due to have been made by the end of June under a European plastics strategy unveiled in January when China stopped taking the world’s waste due to pollution concerns, focusing minds on its environmental impact. An EU official said the deadline had been shifted to September after industry appealed for more time. That timeline makes the fallback option of legislation highly unlikely. The EU recycles only a quarter of the 25-million to 26-million tonnes of plastics waste it produces per year and about half of that was sent to China, which uses recycled plastics to make products ranging from office furniture to cable coatings. The EU executive wants 10-million tonnes of recycled plastics to be used in new products sold in the b...
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