The European Commission has published details of its mass-balance approach under the Single Use Plastics Directive (SUPD) implementing act voted through on 6 February.

This briefing is based on a 2026 technical report by the European Topic Centre on Circular Economy and Resource Efficiency. From more than 460 publications published between 2020 and March 2025, 131 studies with quantifiable and methodologically robust results were analysed. The review assesses both relative emission reductions, expressed as percentage changes compared to business-as-usual scenarios, and absolute reductions in gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent up to 2050.

Microplastic pollution in rivers, lakes and marine ecosystems presents operational and regulatory challenges for water management and environmental protection. Established detection techniques, including Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, require laboratory infrastructure and are often associated with extended analysis times and defined detection limits. These constraints restrict their use for real-time monitoring and routine field deployment.

The ESA app comprises modules for performance monitoring, maintenance management, anomaly detection, logbook functions and document storage. At Interzero, maintenance management is a central component of the system. As one of the largest operators of plastics sorting facilities in Europe, the company manages extensive plant technology that requires structured planning, coordination and documentation of maintenance activities.

The US-based recycling company processes approximately 650,000 tons of construction and demolition waste annually at facilities in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Founded around 30 years ago, the company has developed into a major regional operator in the C&D recycling sector. For several years, however, a considerable proportion of non-ferrous metals remained in the residual waste stream and were disposed of in landfill.

Originally designed and commissioned by Stadler in 2021, the lightweight packaging sorting facility processes approximately 120,000 tonnes per year from dual collection systems in Bremen and neighbouring federal states. With the reconstruction now finalised, the plant has returned to its previous throughput capacity. The redesign places particular emphasis on fire protection, process stability and the integration of automation technologies, including preparation for automated battery extraction.

The figures indicate continued growth in aluminium can recycling across Europe and underline the material's role in the circular economy.

The new soil washing facility is designed to treat excavated materials and C&D waste in line with Norway's increasingly stringent landfill regulations, including restrictions on landfill development, tighter leachate management and higher disposal fees. By investing in advanced treatment capacity, NGIR aims to reduce landfill volumes and increase the recovery of secondary raw materials for use in regional construction projects.

The organisation argues that the European Union's circular material use rate, which stood at 12.2 per cent in 2024 against a 2030 target of 22.4 per cent, requires a reallocation of existing EPR budgets to support waste prevention and reuse systems in addition to established waste management activities.

The latest results indicate a renewed deterioration in the assessment of the current business situation. While the previous survey showed an improvement across all regions, the current evaluation for Europe and Germany has shifted into negative territory. Only the global assessment remains slightly positive. Companies assess their own business situation more critically than the general market environment, with negative ratings across all regions surveyed.

The global polyethylene terephthalate (PET) market has entered 2026 with soft demand, volatile freight and aggressive import competition defining sentiment across most regions. • Seasonality, freight volatility and speculative activity override fundamentals • Producers in multiple regions struggle to lift run rates meaningfully • Trade flows keep shifting as buyers chase the cheapest origin Middle

The EU is consistently aligning its plastics industry with recyclability and creating binding standards with new requirements on recyclability and the use of recyclates that have a global impact. For China, as one of the largest exporters to the EU, this means that products and packaging will have to be competitive in the future not only in terms of price, but above all with regard to regulation. In their report "Impact of EU recycling regulations on China's key packaging-intensive export sectors", ICIS and CPCIF show how Europe's regulatory framework is evolving into a global benchmark that is reshaping production and material decision-making in Chinese companies.

Plastics are indispensable materials, but they can cause significant environmental problems if not disposed of in the proper manner. With the social and political pressure to reduce plastic waste, the importance of clear definitions of terms is growing, because what is considered "plastic" can vary, depending on the context. In the UK, this fact has led to different regulations: the Single Use Plastic Ban (SUPB) aims to prevent littering, the Plastic Packaging Tax (PPT) is intended to encourage circularity. Both are based on the REACH regulations, but differ in their treatment of natural polymers. This discrepancy has created uncertainty, especially for manufacturers of bio-based and biodegradable materials. The article "Plastic definitions in UK regulation" by BB-REG-NET examines how such definitional differences influence the development of a circular economy and points out ways to achieve coherent, innovation-friendly regulation.

The study "Unpacking policy coherence: a network analysis of the EU policy mix for the circular economy" conducted by researchers from Belgium and the Netherlands examines the coherence of EU policies regarding the circular economy from the perspective of economic actors. The study was published in the journal "Sustainable Production and Consumption".

Despite ambitious climate targets, the market penetration of bio-based plastics in the UK remains low. The existing levy and tax systems have so far created hardly any incentives to make biogenic alternatives competitive with fossil plastics. On the contrary, uncoordinated regulations are creating new market distortions that slow down rather than promote sustainable innovation. The report "Fixing fossil market failures: the impact of UK taxes on bio-based plastics" by BB-REG-NET explains what reforms would be needed to actually accelerate the transformation to a circular economy.

In recent years, the circular economy has developed into a central model of sustainable economic and environmental policy. Despite all the progress, however, the active participation of consumers remains limited. The study "Bringing the consumer into the picture - normalising the circular economy", conducted by WPI Economics on behalf of SUEZ UK, examines why existing circular economy approaches have so far only had limited effectiveness from the consumer's point of view and which conditions must be met to normalise circular practices in everyday life.

Europe is facing ecological and social crises that are pushing the linear economic model to its limits. However, the circular economy concept offers solutions: it reduces emissions and resource consumption, strengthens resilience and creates social opportunities. Cities play a key role in this endeavour, as they bundle resource flows and control decisive levers through public procurement and infrastructure. In order to exploit their potential, cities need clear framework conditions and political support. The article "Policy Brief on Accelerating the Circular Economy for a Prosperous and Competitive Europe" presents the priorities of the Circular Cities Frontrunner Group and derives recommendations for both policy and practice.

The reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is a central goal of international climate policy. The circular economy promises to make an important contribution here, as it combines resource conservation and climate protection. But not all practices work the same: While preventive approaches such as product design can reduce emissions, other measures sometimes lead to unexpected effects. The report "Unpacking Circular Economy Practices and Carbon Emissions Relationships: Co-benefits and Legitimacy Perspectives" examines which strategies are actually effective and how theoretical perspectives help to better understand their impact. The report was published in "Business Strategy and the Environment".

Assessing the effectiveness of climate policy measures is becoming increasingly difficult as countries continuously expand their climate policies and increasingly complex policy mixes emerge. Today, individual instruments hardly seem isolated, but embedded in dense constellations of parallel measures. In the study "Effective climate policies for 'all seasons': novel evidence from 40 countries", scientists from Spain, Switzerland, Germany and Norway develop a methodological approach that can nevertheless be used to identify robust effects of individual climate policies. On the basis of a comparative analysis of several countries, sectors and policy areas, those measures are determined that reliably contribute to the reduction of CO₂ emissions, regardless of the specific policy mix. The study was published in "Climate Policy".

Renewable energies are a key factor in the EU's ambitious climate targets. The technologies required for this require a number of critical raw materials. Currently, the EU is largely dependent on imports. The Union has taken a number of measures to improve the security of raw material supply. In its special report "Critical raw materials for the energy transition: no solid strategy in place", the European Court of Auditors has examined how successful these measures have been so far. The title of the report already says everything about the result.