Stemming the plastic tide - Main contents

Karmenu Vella, European Commissioner for the Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries It’s summertime, and soon the holidays will be upon us. Millions of Europeans will take time off and head for the beach. A well-earned break at last.

We’ll lie in the sun on plastic recliners. We’ll be wearing brightly coloured beachwear, spun from plastic thread. Children will play with plastic buckets and spades. We’ll drink from plastic containers, we’ll put on suncream from plastic bottles, and we’ll protect our eyes with plastic sunglasses.

Plastic has made things easier, all through my life. It’s brought change and choice, and it’s not going to disappear. On the International Space Station, when they need a new component, they can now make a plastic one in orbit with a 3D printer.

But when we’re down on the beach, we can all see the downside to this fabulously versatile material. Plastic litter is killing birds and whales, it’s entering the foodchain and it’s compromising our health.

Plastics makes up 85% of litter items on European beaches. Half is ‘single-use plastic’, used only once for a short time, before being discarded. Abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear accounts for another quarter. Half of the litter found on EU beaches is single-use plastics, with lost or abandoned fishing gear representing another quarter.

In the last few weeks alone, the world has woken up to news like plastic pollution reaching Antarctica, and being found at the bottom of the Marianas Trench, ten kilometres down, in the deepest part of the ocean, in the remotest eco-systems on the planet. We know that plastic is doing harm, and we all agree that it's wrong to leave this legacy for future generations. So the urgency is real.

It’s a situation that can’t continue, so after careful consultation of Europe’s citizens, the European Commission has decided to act.

What we propose is a complete rethink of the way we use plastic, with new rules targeting fishing gear and the 10 single-use products most often found on beaches and in seas. Different measures are being proposed for each item, reflecting patterns of consumer behaviour.

Our thinking is that there’s nothing wrong with a ban, when a better alternative is already available. Italy has shown that it is perfectly feasible with a ban on plastic cotton buds.

Europe-wide, we are proposing to ban the sale of not only single-use plastic cotton buds, but also plastic cutlery, plastic plates, drinks stirrers, straws and balloon sticks. For other items such as the wet wipes that commonly turn up on beaches, we want to see better labelling, to ensure that everyone understands they can’t be flushed away.

We also want measures on awareness raising, voluntary actions, and Extended Producer Responsibility schemes to cover the cost of clean-ups. It’s time for a rethink of plastic beverage containers, and to connect caps to bottles. We’re also proposing a reduction targets for cups and food containers, and a Europe-wide 90% separate collection target for single-use plastic bottles. We are also proposing better incentives for fishermen to return damaged, end-of-life and fished-up gear delivered to port.

Citizens do want change, but we all know that our habits can be hard to break. Our new campaign is designed to help people bridge that gap, with clips that challenge the idea that plastic is always convenient, sharable social media to build up resistance to the seductive power of plastic, and a web platform with links to the policy backdrop. Find more at www.bereadytochange.eu

The changes we need are driven by innovation, and we need that innovative spirit more than ever before. Replacing common items with better alternatives with more added-value is an economic opportunity for Europe. People all over the globe are starting to call time on single-use items. Europeans already lead the field when it comes to producing more sustainable alternatives. Our track record is second to none on innovative business models and re-use schemes.

This new approach to plastics will also come with a financial component. The Europe-wide research programme Horizon 2020 has provided more than €250 million to fund plastics R&D. Over the next two years an additional €100 million will help finance priority actions centred round plastics.

That means EU funds going directly towards the development of smarter and more recyclable plastics materials. It means more efficient recycling processes and the removal of hazardous substances and contaminants from recycled plastics.

Plastic is a global problem, but there is no reason why Europe can’t take the lead in delivering solutions. Taken together, these proposals add up to the most comprehensive legal instrument addressing the issue anywhere in the world.

Something to reflect on down at the beach, as you sip a cool drink. Through a straw you can reuse or recycle, of course.

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This article was originally published in Formiche magazine