Today, Ursula von der LEYEN, President of the European Commission, delivered a landmark speech on the State of the Union 2020. The European Recycling Industry renews its support to the European Commission in making the European Green Deal, Europe’s strategic priority.

EuRIC strongly welcomes in particular the proposal made by the European Commission to increase the 2030 target for emission reduction to at least 55% which is a necessary step forward in order to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. EuRIC equally supports the decision to allocate 37% of Next Generation EU to European Green Deal targets as massive investments are needed to deliver on these objectives.

The European Recycling Industry is ready to play its part. By turning waste into quality raw materials used to manufacture new products, recycling companies, be them SMEs or market leaders, enable the circular economy and create local, non-outsourceable jobs across Europe. In addition, recycling is not only intrinsically resource-efficient but also climate efficient by saving significant amounts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) and energy, well-documented in robust studies for a variety of resource streams.

“To speed up the transition towards a circular economy and meet the ambition set by the European Green Deal, it is instrumental to incentivize the use of secondary raw materials in manufacturing” stressed Cinzia VEZZOSI, President of EuRIC. “Recycled content targets for a variety of products as well as incentives to reward recycling environmental benefits and level the playing field with primary materials are absolutely essential. In addition, time has come to speed up the adaptation of the EU’s regulatory framework to create a well-functioning market for secondary materials and streamline requirements hampering circular value chains, keeping in mind the global nature of commodity markets which are key to balance supply and demand. Last but not least, decisive actions are needed to boost eco-design for re-use and recycling of all product categories. Products which cannot be recycled when they reach end-of-life by using best available techniques should not find their way on the internal market. We have a vested interest in working with producers to ensure that design for circularity becomes the new norm”, she concluded.

For more information, please contact: euric@euric-aisbl.eu