Michael Brunn

With the Green Deal, the EU is aiming for a significant increase in the plastic recycling rate, but currently only about 27 percent of waste is actually recycled. In addition to mechanical recycling, the focus is on physical and chemical processes, the environmental and cost effects of which have so far been little researched. The study "Environmental and economic assessment of plastic waste recycling and energy recovery pathways in the EU" by Spanish and Italian scientists compares the most important recycling routes on the basis of European primary data and provides decision-making aids for politics and business. The study was published in "Resources, Conservation & Recycling".

Effective battery recycling processes are crucial to reduce Europe's dependence on raw material imports and improve battery sustainability. In the study "Economic and structural challenges of lithium-ion battery recycling in Europe: A stakeholder-based assessment", scientists from RWTH Aachen University examined the entire battery value chain. Their conclusion: current recycling practices are not economical. Instead, they propose a decentralized structure with regional pretreatment facilities and centralized chemical processing centers to shorten transportation distances, reduce costs, and improve scalability. The study was published in "Wastemanagement".

The OECD sees Southeast and East Asia (ASEAN, China, Japan, Korea) as a key region in the fight against plastic pollution. In its "Regional Plastics Outlook for Southeast and East Asia", the OECD shows ways in which waste generation could be reduced not only in the region.

About 400 million tons of plastic waste are generated every year. It is assumed that the amount will almost double by 2040 without countermeasures. The problem is well known and many people also believe that something needs to be done about it. But no one is doing anything. The polyproblem report "The gap in the head - plastic waste swims between values and reality" by the Wider Sense and Röchling Foundation tries to get behind the secret of the "intention-behavior gap".

The transformation to a circular economy is one of the major guiding principles of contemporary environmental and resource policy. Plastics play a key role in this debate: they are durable, versatile and ubiquitous - but also persistent, difficult to recycle and often mixed with hazardous chemicals. Recycling is considered a central solution for reducing plastic waste. But reality shows that global recycling rates are low, the quality of recycled materials is inadequate, and toxic ingredients hinder safe recycling. The article "Addressing the toxic chemicals problem in plastics recycling" explores the question of how a circular plastics economy can succeed without exacerbating health or environmental risks. It was published by researchers from Sweden, Germany, Nigeria and the Netherlands by Cambridge University Press.

Plastics consist of much more than just polymers. An international research team has now presented a global overview of more than 16,000 known plastic chemicals - including over 4,200 substances of concern. The study "Mapping the chemical complexity of plastics" was published in "Nature".

The recycled polyethylene terephthalate (R-PET) market has seen its least volatile year since pre-COVID times, with seasonal trends replacing the extreme spikes and troughs experienced in recent years.

This new recognition builds on the one already obtained for the packaging sector and will allow the centre to carry out technological validation work in line with RecyClass protocols. These validations confirm whether innovations developed by companies are compatible with the appropriate plastic recycling streams, ensuring that they represent sustainable solutions which support the transition of strategic industries towards more circular production models.

Behind the rhetoric of "simplification" for "competitiveness" lies a deregulatory agenda: a tsunami of Omnibus packages to cut rules for certain businesses, hailed as an €8 billion saving. Yet the Commission's own review shows that failing to implement existing EU environmental law already costs €180 billion every year.

The European Parliament's plenary vote on its position on the proposed End-of-Life Vehicles Regulation (ELVR) marks an important step in advancing the circularity of the automotive sector. However, FEAD warns that certain requirements risk undermining the Regulation's ability to deliver on its objectives.