Politics

| As announced earlier this year, the European Commission has published their new circular economy package today.

| The European Council for Plasticisers and Intermediates – ECPI - is disappointed by the European Parliament’s plenary vote against the Commission proposal to authorise the recycling of soft PVC containing DEHP. The final decision will be taken by the European Commission which is not obligated to follow the European Parliament’s opinion.

| New data on plastics waste management shows an important growth in plastics waste collection.

| Although volumes, prices and confidence are all down, BIR Plastics Committee Chairman Surendra Patawari Borad of Belgium-based Gemini Corporation NV still spied “some silver linings in the grey clouds” for plastics recyclers.

| German WEEE law ElektroG came into force on October 24, bringing PV modules under the scope of mandatory Producer responsibility.

| The combined European metals industry today demonstrated their support for the upcoming Circular Economy Package through a common position paper. In Boosting the Circular Management of Metals, the metals sector highlights how it looks forward to an ambitious Circular Economy Package supporting growth, innovation, competitiveness and jobs.

| On 24 November 2015, the annual Petcore Europe Conference will take place in Brussels. The conference brings together more than 100 experts and leaders from the whole PET value chain in Europe and beyond as well as representatives from the European institutions. This year, the conference will focus on the four key aspects Sustainability, Circular Economy, Innovation and Globalisation.

| Trina Solar, SunPower, Solar Frontier, JinkoSolar, Conergy, aleo solar and Producer compliance and waste management scheme PV Cycle have expressed their concern about companies’ negligence to comply with legal requirements of EU-wide WEEE legislations.

| The NGO Shipbreaking Platform strongly welcomes IndustriALL's "Campaign to clean up Shipbreaking - the world's most dangerous Job".

| PV cycle has announced to have joined the Dutch Monitoring Council as one of the founding members. With the goal of ensuring that the WEEE targets are met, the Monitoring Council plays a pivotal role in defining procedures and standards for high-efficiency collection and recycling in The Netherlands.

| Eurofer files formal complaint against state aid for Europe’s largest steel plant and demands a more effective EU trade defence policy.

| Volumes of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) are rising rapidly - especially in emerging countries - and yet “there is not really a level playing field” when it comes to treatment standards, it was alleged at the latest BIR E-Scrap Committee meeting by Volker Pawlitzki, Senior Vice President of the Recycling/Precious Metals Business Unit of major Germany-based refiner Aurubis.

| “Hurdles to free trade are detrimental to economic growth and also to our companies,” declared BIR Paper Division President Reinhold Schmidt of Germany-based Recycling Karla Schmidt in opening the latest meeting, held on June 3 in Miami.