The European Commission is promising a battle against plastic pollution, but it is currently unclear how to achieve this goal.
“If we do not change the way we manufacture and use plastic, there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050,” warns the European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans.
He presented a new strategy for the fight against plastic disposal in the EU on Tuesday.
One of the main objectives of the strategy is that all plastic packaging in the EU by 2030 should be designed to be reused or recycled.
Today, Europeans generate 25 million tonnes of plastic waste a year. Less than 30 percent of this is collected for recycling.
However, in the new strategy, the European Commission is not very clear about how to achieve the 2030 target. Possible measures are still largely to be investigated in the EU system.
However, a concrete proposal is the use of EU chemicals regulations REACH to ban the use of microplastics in detergents and cosmetic products , such as soaps and toothpastes.
In addition, there is a separate strategy for single-use plastic, such as cigarette butts, drinking bottles, corks, cotton buds, plastic bags, straws and balloons.
© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today
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