Rethink Plastic has sent an open letter to the European Commission calling for it to propose “strong and harmonised” EU legislation within the EU Strategy on Plastics.
The Strategy is due to be published at the end of 2017.
“We call for concrete policy action on reducing, redesigning and better managing plastics, and challenge the Commission to think broader and bolder, including trying to live plastic free for a day,” it says.
Rethink Plastic is an alliance of European NGOs with one common aim: a future that is free from plastic pollution. It brings together policy and technical expertise from a variety of relevant fields.
It is challenging the Commission to deliver on the following three areas over the summer.
“We call for concrete policy action on reducing, redesigning and better managing plastics, and challenge the Commission to think broader and bolder, including trying to live plastic free for a day”
“Firstly, the process of developing the Strategy on Plastics must be done in a transparent manner and be informed by recommendations from the studies commissioned by your services and the concerns of citizens.
“Secondly, to engage on a personal level – spend one day plastic-free and tweet pictures of your plastic-free day or of plastic pollution with the hashtag #RethinkPlastic.
“Your final challenge is to commit to being bold. The Strategy must reform the plastics value chain into a truly circular model, optimising it to end plastic pollution which will require us all to think big, act big and deliver big.”
It says it will primarily assess and give feedback on the Commission’s final Strategy according to performance in the following three areas:
- Reduction: an absolute reduction in our plastic footprint. We cannot recycle our way out of our plastic pollution problem, nor can we solve it by substituting plastic feedstock. In particular, we are looking for legislation that will reduce the use of single-use items, top littered items and microplastics.
- Redesign: binding measures to ensure plastics are responsible by design, i.e. designed for longevity, reusability, recyclability, incorporating recycled content and free from toxic substances.
- Better management: empower and ensure responsible plastic management by all actors (producers, retailers and municipalities) to achieve maximum collection and recycling within Europe.