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Preventing plastic waste in Europe

Publication Created 03 May 2019 Published 03 Jun 2019
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A report reviewing waste prevention policies in Europe with a focus on how these policies approach the issue of plastics and plastic waste.
Downloading: PDF document icon TH-AL-19-019-EN-N eea-report-waste-prev_2019-008.pdf — PDF document, 2.04 MB (2141598 bytes)
Publication Created 03 May 2019 Published 03 Jun 2019
EEA Report No 2/2019
A report reviewing waste prevention policies in Europe with a focus on how these policies approach the issue of plastics and plastic waste.

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NOTE: updated 04-12-2019, table 3.5 was replaced.

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How green are the new biodegradable, compostable and bio-based plastic products now coming into use? We know that plastic pollution and plastic waste are a big environmental problem. In recent years, new plastic products have been introduced on the market, claiming to be better for the environment. A recently published European Environment Agency (EEA) briefing assesses their environmental credentials. To find out more, we sat down with Almut Reichel, a sustainable resource use and waste expert at the EEA.
Prevention is crucial to tackling plastic waste crisis Plastic waste remains a huge and growing problem. But what is the European Union doing to address the issue? Ioannis Bakas, the EEA’s waste prevention expert gives a brief overview of the EEA’s report on preventing plastic waste in Europe, which was published earlier this month.
What are European countries doing to tackle plastic waste? Despite some promising efforts to address the growing problem of plastic waste like banning plastic shopping bags or straws, specific prevention targets for different plastic waste are still not widespread in Europe, according to a European Environment Agency (EEA) assessment published today. Only nine countries have explicit targets in place for plastic waste prevention.

See also

Human needs — the drivers of marine litter Human needs for food, hygiene and well-being, and related economic activities, lead to plastic production and the generation of mismanaged waste or discarded items that become marine litter. One of the challenges is adequately meeting fundamental human needs while minimising environmental degradation and pollution that occurs as a consequence. Here, we look at the main problems and drivers of marine litter.
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Waste prevention in Europe The Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC) set a legal obligation for European Union (EU) Member States to adopt waste prevention programmes by 12 December 2013. The European Environment Agency (EEA) was invited to carry out an annual review of the progress made towards the ‘completion and implementation of the programmes’, the first of which was completed for 2013.

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For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/preventing-plastic-waste-in-europe or scan the QR code.

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