The Commission starts to develop end-of-waste criteria for plastic waste
The Commission has finalised its scoping assessment to identify the priority list of waste streams for the development of further EU-wide end-of-waste criteria, as announced in the Circular Economy Action plan.*
Over the past year and a half, the Commission has carried out a scoping exercise that included a study published in 2020.** This was followed up by a stakeholder consultation and an on-line stakeholder workshop on 14-15 September 2021 where the Commission presented the ongoing end-of-waste scoping project, information gathered and preliminary findings.***
As part of this work, the Joint Research Centre/European Commission published the report Scoping possible further EU-wide end-of-waste and by-product criteria (europa.eu). This report identifies the most suitable candidate streams for which further EU-wide end-of-waste criteria could be developed based on a methodology developed to ensure a real added EU value. The assessment builds on data and information provided by stakeholders during the stakeholder consultation period.
The top two candidate streams to be prioritised are the following:
1. Plastics:
- polyethylene terephthalate recovered/recycled from plastic waste;
- low- and high-density polyethylene recovered/recycled from plastic waste;
- mixed plastics waste recovered/recycled from plastic waste;
- polystyrene and expanded polystyrene recovered/recycled from plastic waste; and
- polypropylene plastic recovered/recycled from plastic waste.
2. Textiles:
- separately collected clothes and other textiles prepared for re-use;
- cellulosic fibres recovered/recycled from textile waste; and
- mixed fibres recovered/recycled from textile waste
The Commission and its Joint Research Centre will commence the work on the development of end-of-waste criteria for plastic waste in Q2 2022 with the finalisation of the technical assessment expected by Q1 2024.
The work on end-of-waste criteria for textile waste will commence in 2023.