A cir­cu­lar eco­nomy for plastics

The cur­rent plastics sys­tem demands fun­da­ment­al change in which research and innov­a­tion, enabled and rein­forced by poli­cy­mak­ing, play a cru­cial role. Mov­ing towards a cir­cu­lar eco­nomy, we can har­ness the bene­fits of plastics, while achiev­ing bet­ter eco­nom­ic, envir­on­ment­al and social out­comes. This report aims to inform policy and fund­ing decisions on a cir­cu­lar eco­nomy for plastics by provid­ing research and innov­a­tion insights from EU-fun­ded pro­jects and the wider sci­entif­ic com­munity. The report cov­ers the entire plastics value chain, high­light­ing a broad range of chal­lenges and oppor­tun­it­ies. Based on sci­entif­ic evid­ence, the insights presen­ted con­trib­ute to the trans­ition towards plastic pro­duc­tion from renew­able feed­stock and product design for use, reuse, repair, and mech­an­ic­al, chem­ic­al, or organ­ic recyc­ling. In addi­tion, the report explains how this sys­tem­ic change can be sup­por­ted by innov­a­tion in busi­ness mod­els, col­lec­tion sys­tems, and sort­ing and recyc­ling tech­no­lo­gies. In this way, plastics could cir­cu­late through our soci­ety with full trans­par­ency at high-value usage, while min­im­ising the risks to human health and the envir­on­ment. Source: European Com­mis­sion, Pub­lic­a­tion, 04.03.2019 For more inform­a­tion please click here.