NGO Zero Waste Europe (Brussels / Belgium; www.zerowasteeurope.eu) is calling for a strong push towards circular design that prepares plastics for reuse and “environmentally sound” mechanical recycling. Published in July 2021, its position paper “Designing for real recycling, not plastic lock-in” says Europe cannot achieve a circular economy as outlined in its Circular Economy Action Plan (see Plasteurope.com of 09.02.2021) without closing the gap between recyclability potential, actual collection and sorting, and recycling.

According to Zero Waste Europe, design improvements could halve the cost of recycling plastic packaging waste. It called for design-for-recycling standards for each product or material group rather than having broad overall principles that cannot be applied in practice, along with a shift to using fewer types of plastics. For packaging, this would ideally mean moving towards single polymers.

Several factors should be taken into account when designing for recyclability, the organisation said, including separability of components; compatibility of materials and material mix; choice and toxicity of materials; form, size and thickness; use of additives, fillers and colourants; barriers and coatings; and labelling and sleeves.

In addition, it said there is a “desperate” need for mandatory, harmonised Europe-wide recyclability requirements and labelling. Zero Waste Europe noted that a mandatory, traceable label implemented through self-declaration and third-party verifications on recyclability should replace the “Green Dot” system, which has proven to be misleading for consumers.

It also argues against allowing unrecyclable plastics to be treated by energy-intensive recycling technologies, such as pyrolysis and gasification, stating this would mean “trapping ourselves into an expensive and high-carbon, lock-in situation”.

It points to PlasticsEurope’s (Brussels; www.plasticseurope.org) target of producing 1.2m t of recycled plastics from chemical recycling by 2025 as a contribution to the European Commission’s Circular Plastics Alliance goal of 10m t of recycled plastics in EU products by 2025 (see Plasteurope.com of 17.12.2018). Yet the technology lacks the potential to come near the scale or infrastructure needed for such a target, Zero Waste Europe says, adding that most EU member states currently do not have operations at pilot scale, and those that do have been unable to commercialise them.

“Rather than stepping up efforts in design and recyclability to enhance mechanical recycling, downstream measures are being proposed to treat poorly designed plastics through carbon-intensive chemical recovery processes which have a negative impact on cost, yield and environmental performance of the plastic cycle,” the paper says. “While waste prevention and reuse options must be prioritised, improvements in the recyclability of plastic products must be supported with the objective of ensuring that mechanical recycling plants in the EU are provided with enough quality feedstock to at least reach the EU target of 55% of plastic packaging recycled by 2030.”

Another of the NGO’s recommendations is increased enforcement of the requirements of the revised Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive to ensure that sector or product-level standards for recyclability are established, and that a bonus-malus and eco-modulation fee system is complemented with clear restrictions. These would include, for example, banning unrecyclable packaging such as that made from PVC and EPS, and additives such as carbon black, bio- or oxo-degradable additives and alumunium layers.