"We are not turning our backs on plastics, but on waste" interview with El Mundo - Main contents

What is the fundamental change that the new Plastics Directive will promote in Europe?

The fundamental change is rethinking our relationship to this material. It’s not about abandoning plastic, but it is about abandoning the idea of throw-away plastic. When we make something out of plastic, we should always have a choice: do we make to last a long time, because that’s the design requirement, or do we make easy to recycle, because we know that it won’t be used for long? So we aren’t turning out backs on plastics. We’re turning our back on waste. There’s a big difference.

We have breakfast every day with news about the eight million tons of plastic that end up in the sea, with microscopic plastic particles in our food... but our supermarkets are still full of plastic containers and we transport them in single-use bags. What is missing from today's society to realize the need to reduce the use of this material?

Things can change very quickly. You mention plastic bags, but their use is falling very fast in many parts of Europe, since the legislation restricting their use was introduced in 2015. Spain is one of the last places not to have implemented that legislation.

We are bringing in these proposals now because we feel Europeans are ready. Eurobarometer surveys have found that 87% of citizens are concerned about the impact everyday plastic products have on the environment, and they want to see change.

So I am confident about how these proposals will be received, and about the pace of change that will follow. They will make it easier for people to do the things they say they want to do anyway.

The Commission has already set waste recycling targets in the past that some countries are far from achieving. Are you afraid that the same thing will happen with plastic?

I am optimistic, for two reasons. First of all, what we are presenting is a tremendous opportunity for European businesses, a chance for them to steal a march on the rest of the world by developing and bringing to the market the sustainable alternatives that people want. And secondly, because of what’s already happened with plastic bags. We recently asked citizens if they had cut their use of single-use bags, and 72 % said yes, and 38 % of them had done that over the past 12 months.

Does the Commission include sanctions for countries in case of non-compliance?

It’s a bit early to talk about non-compliance - these are only proposals, and they still need to go through the European Parliament and the Council. And in any case EU law is actually owned by EU Member States, so they are the ones who do most of the enforcement. We only intervene if a law hasn’t found its way to the statute books, or if there is a serious and persistent problem with its implementation.

Are you in favor of collecting a tax on the production of plastic that could have a finalist character?

What the European Commission has proposed in terms of national contributions to the long-term EU budget doesn’t target plastic production. The calculation will be based on the amount of non-recycled plastic packaging waste in each Member State. So it’s an incentive to recycle more, because Member States that do recycle more will see their contributions go down. It’s all part of our drive to make the circular economy a reality in Europe as quickly as possible.

What role could innovation have in the development of new, less polluting materials?

The plastic strategy, which we presented at the beginning of the year, aims to transform the way plastics and plastic products are designed, produced, used, and recycled. Far too much goes to waste at the moment, with 95 % of the value of plastic packaging worth up to EUR 105 billion being lost to the economy every year. We also only recycle 30 % of our plastic waste in Europe. That needs to change, and that will require innovation.

We want to see sustainable alternatives, using more recycled materials. These proposals are intended to provide more certainty for business, giving them the assurance that real change is on the way, so it makes sense for them to plan and invest for the future.

Doing an imagination exercise... When will we see a Europe free of plastic?

Plastic is not going to disappear. Glasses are made of plastic, heart valves are made of plastic, there are 3D printers on the International Space Station. But single-use plastics are a whole different issue.

Imagine some parents with a new-born baby. They wipe away some mucus with a cotton bud, it takes a few seconds, and they throw that cotton bud away. It goes to a landfill or maybe it falls down the drain and ends up in the sea. The child grows up, travels the world, lives a long happy life, and eventually passes away surrounded by loved ones, aged 104. But during all that time, the plastic in the cotton bud has hardly changed at all - it could literally take hundreds of years to decompose. Generations of people with that same cotton bud there to greet each passing one. That’s a ridiculous state of affairs, and yet that is our current reality.

But it’s easy to imagine that changing. People suddenly understand the enormous, senseless waste, and they decide to do something about it. That can happen very fast.

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This interview was originally published in el Mundo http://www.elmundo.es/ciencia-y-salud/ciencia/2018/07/04/5b3bb70ee2704ede5f8b462f.html