EU mulls complete ban on plastic packaging

The EU Commission is evaluating a ban on plastic packaging and setting new requirements for manufacturers, EU Commissioner-designate for environment and the oceans Virginijus Sinkevicius said in an interview with German newspaper Die Welt.

He said the EU executive "definitely want to expand the rules for single-use plastics" and thay they are currently investigating in which direction it would be possible.

An important step would be, for example, to ban plastic packaging or to prescribe the use of recycled plastic.

Bloomberg estimats that the new EU regulation on single-use plastics threatens a market in excess of USD 10 billion, with polypropylene and polystyrene being the plastics most exposed. Adopted last year, the Single-Use Plastics Directive bans plastic products such as cutlery, stirrers, straws, cotton bud sticks and some polystyrene containers.

The EU Commission is also investigating how manufacturers of products such as tires or cosmetics could be obliged to dramatically reduce the microplastic of their products.

Sinkevicius added that microplastics are also on the EC's agenda.

"By the end of the year, we will provide a very detailed list of all those products that contain microplastics or that use microplastics,” Sinkevicius was quoted as saying.

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