Michael Brunn

Bilyana Ignatova, Vice President of EU Public Affairs at Tomra, warns: "The ambition of the Clean Industrial Deal can only be delivered if the accompanying state aid framework backs all pillars, circularity included, with equal policy attention and financial support."

As the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) works on the development of harmonised End-of-Waste (EoW) criteria for textiles, EuRIC, the voice of Europe's recycling industries, calls for an approach that is practical, market-driven, and innovation-friendly.

Through the projects ZWE coordinates and the Zero Waste Cities Certification, operated by its sister organisation, the Mission Zero Academy, cities covering 18 million inhabitants in Europe are being supported to implement zero waste solutions, as highlighted in the "State of Zero Waste Municipalities Report 2024".

In July 2023, the European Commission adopted its proposal for revising and merging the End-of-Life Vehicles Directive and the 3 R Type-Approval Directive into a Regulation on Vehicle Design and Management of End-of-Life Vehicles. The proposal aims to strengthen the EU single market while reducing the negative environmental impacts linked to the design, production, use, and end-of-life treatment of vehicles and contributing to improving the circularity and sustainability of the automotive and recycling sectors.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been in the spotlight for more than a decade due to their potential impacts on human health and the environment. This is especially true for certain compounds such as PFOS and PFOA, while the impacts associate with the chemical form of PFAS known as 'PFAS polymers', which in simple terms consist of larger molecules, have been considered to be lower.

This shift is visible across several flagship initiatives: from the Green Deal to the Clean Industrial Deal and, most recently, the Commission's Steel and Metals Action Plan.

FEAD has unveiled its 10 policy recommendations for the upcoming Circular Economy Act, a crucial step to ensure that Europe's circular economy ambitions are met with concrete, actionable legislation.

The Sleep Circular project is a FEAD initiative aiming at addressing the low collection and recycling rates of end-of-life mattresses in Europe and achieving a truly circular mattress lifecycle through cross-value chain collaboration. This project reflects FEAD's vision of a circular economy powered by strategic partnerships that connect the waste management sector with industrial production to boost the uptake of recycled materials and drive sustainable growth.

Although exports decreased in 2024, the amount was still 58.5% higher than in 2004 (+13.2 million tonnes).

Theresa Mörsen, Waste & Resources Policy Officer, states: "Reducing environmental impact requires not just more efficient resource use, but also a fundamental shift in our use rate. The failure to fully internalise externalities, like environmental degradation and carbon emissions, keeps the market skewed in favour of primary materials, undercutting the competitiveness of secondary materials and circular business models."