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The European Academy of Sciences (EASAC) has warned that current efforts to tackle the plastics cris

Issuing time:2020-03-20 17:03
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Policy makers and industry must resolve conflicts throughout the system, from production to the end of life.EASAC's professor MichaelNorton said: "reducing the flow of millions of tonnes of plastic waste into oceans, land and freshwater environments is incompatible with a sustained increase in plastic use dependence."EASAC's latest report, "Plastic Packaging in a Circular Economy," shows that fundamental and systemic reforms are needed across the value chain to slow and reverse damage to the environment, biodiversity, and ultimately human health.

Plastic is everywhere.Since 1960, global plastic production has risen from 1.5 million tons a year to nearly 400 million tons."Macroplastics and microplastics are found on land, in the ocean, and even in the air.For many species, plastics are deadly through entanglement and ingestion, while microplastics are spread throughout the food chain."In the history of mankind, the 21st century may actually be remembered as the plastic Age," NORTON said.

"We do not doubt the important role and benefits of plastics in our lifestyle.But our report's warning is not a dystopia for environmental activists."This is science," NORTON continued.The report makes clear that voluntary and market mechanisms are insufficient to address this problem.Martin NORTON: "European lawmakers should adopt rules and incentives to accelerate the development of an economy that recycles plastic waste.We must reuse plastics and packaging, greatly improve our recycling and, most importantly, ensure that no waste leaks into the environment."

The academy's report makes it clear that relying on growth is not an option, not least because switching to many so-called "biological" materials is also unreasonable, for resource or environmental reasons."They may mislead consumers and create the illusion of sustainability, potentially prolonging today's abandonment mentality," says NORTON.

This is the first time leading scientists from the national academies of Sciences in 28 European countries have come together to delve into the entire plastic value chain.Based on their findings, the EASAC scientists made seven recommendations to EU policymakers on how to reform the system.

Seven recommendations to European lawmakers

1. The export of plastic waste is prohibited

Today, most of the EU's plastic waste is not recycled in Europe.Large quantities of contaminated and hard-to-recycle plastic are shipped out of Europe, often ending up in illegal factories and/or leaking into the local environment and eventually into the ocean."Europe should deal with its own waste, not pass it on to other countries with less capacity."From an environmental and ethical point of view, it is better to dispose of plastic waste in Europe, even though we have to incinerate some of it in factories from waste to energy," said Dr Annemiek Verrips of the Dutch Institute.

Adopt the target of zero plastic waste landfill to minimize consumption and single use.

EASAC urges the European Commission to make the adoption of zero plastic waste landfills a priority in line with the development of the plastic recycling economy in the EU.

The scientists also suggest reducing consumption as an explicit goal of the forthcoming "plastic in the Circular economy" package."An important policy measure to reduce one-way use is to extend the direct recycling programme to a wider range of containers and disposable beverages," explained Verrips.

SAC also asks policy makers to ensure that the polluter pays principle applies to plastics manufacturers and retailers."Europe must impose ambitious EPR charges on big plastic packaging.The system should include tax breaks for recycled plastics in order to force people to choose products that can be recycled, said Professor Gaetano Guerra of the Italian Academy of Sciences.Ecofriendation costs also take into account product design criteria such as toxicity, durability, reusability, repairability and recyclability of Z compost, which are related to their final use and environmental impact.So far, scientists have found that the potential of biodegradable plastics is very limited."The ideal goal of natural decomposition of plastics in the environment remains elusive because most applications of plastics require durability," said A Nne ChristineAlbe of the Swedish Academy of Sciences.It is a basic premise that materials that degrade in the environment should not degrade during their shelf life.Only a few products were able to meet biodegradation tests in the Marine environment, and even those products remained intact for months, during which the risk of entanglement and ingestion remained.Moreover, "bioproduction is not the same as reducing environmental impacts, since alternative feedstocks of fossil fuels can be associated with high greenhouse gas emissions, competing for food with land, or driving land-use change.""Consumers are often misled about the diversity of the current labelling system," he said."We need a mandatory and uniform European labelling scheme," explains Dr AttilaVarga of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. "It has to do with practical rather than theoretical recyclability."It is difficult to effectively recycle many waste streams with advanced recycling and post-treatment technologies, and a range of options need to be developed to extract value from the current low or negative value of mixed plastic waste.Export requires the development of integrated recovery systems capable of handling all plastic waste.As EASAC advice, if you want to stop the European Union and the landfill NORTON layer - best way: ', we need a clear recovery levels: closed loop recycling, which represented by the PET bottle recycling for PET bottle recycling used in the same product, and energy recovery should be used in other products of open loop cycle and molecular recovery after a better choice of last resort.To date many manufacturers and processors in the plastics industry have not shown enough interest in what happens to their products when they are used.The report found that reducing the use of sometimes toxic additives and simplifying the amount of polymers that can be used for specific purposes, such as large quantities of recyclable polymers such as PE, would greatly contribute to the technical and economic viability of recycling.Recent technological advances have made it possible to replace even multiple layers of packaging made of different materials (and therefore difficult to recycle) with multiple layers of packaging made of the same resin, making it recyclable.7.Recycled content pricing and quotas for pure plastic raw materials are too cheap.This obstacle.According to the report, the cost of plastic does not include environmental and social costs, from initial oil or gas to littering on land or at sea.The exclusion of environmental costs is a failure of the market and a root cause of the growing demand for recycled materials. This is in line with measures being discussed in some member states and In Europe, which either impose a plastic tax or require minimal recycling."[ASAC notes that prices are also the most important signal of rapid change in behavior by fee-takers and prompt adoption of consistent regulatory and financial frameworks," VA said. "However, depending on individual consumer decisions, there are clear limits to how effective a measure can be


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