Weekly Newsletter on Circular Waste Management #39-2023

South Africa

·?Waste pickers urge residents to separate their waste. More to read: https://benonicitytimes.co.za/474645/waste-pickers-call-for-support-2/

??In a pioneering effort led by the Western Cape’s Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning and supported by private sector stakeholders, The iThemba Phakama 4Ps (People, Public, Private, Partnership) project seeks to address this issue by focusing on schools and incentivising waste reduction, encouraging students from no-fee schools to collect and donate plastic waste from their homes and communities. Among the companies involved in collecting waste from schools is the Centre for Regenerative Design and Collaboration (CRDC), which operates its ‘Bag That Builds’ plastic recovery program. At their facility, plastic waste is transformed into fine dust called RESIN8, which is used in the production of bricks, pipes, pavers and kerbstones. More to read: https://www.capetownetc.com/sustainability/sa-schools-lead-the-way-in-recycling-plastic-for-sustainable-housing/

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France

·?Open Food Facts and the ADEME Agency launched the “Tackling Food Packaging!” project. This project will create transparent, accessible, reusable (open data) and totally new information to reach many goals: Encouraging eco-conception (by encouraging emulation between brands, by providing?manufacturers and industries?with detailed statistics on the packaging of their products and by suggesting possible eco-conception options on our free platform for producers); Supporting environmental labelling (the data collected will allow us to validate the formula of the future official environmental label, and then to make it available to the general public (via apps, online sales sites, etc.); Improve public policies by allowing to use open-data for new purposes (prediction and monitoring of packaging-related waste production, quantification of the impact of public policies, leverage of public action on the various players); Support and fuel scientific research from all over the world?will be able to cross data, compare them in different countries, and identify new ways to reduce the impact of packaging. More to read: https://blog.openfoodfacts.org/en/open-food-facts-et-lademe-lancent-le-projet-plein-pot-sur-les-emballages and https://www.numerama.com/politique/1452612-open-food-facts-le-wiki-de-lalimentation-qui-chamboule-lagro-industrie.html

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?The draft finance law for the year 2024 specifies the resources allocated to the ecological transition, without however dedicating a specific part to the circular economy, even though questions of resource availability are at the heart of economic sovereignty issues. This is why the following propositions are made by INEC, (i) remove the obstacles to the implementation of the incentive household waste collection tax/pay as you throw, (ii) accelerate the ramp-up of?repair, supported by the repair bonus and the repairability index,?by reducing the VAT rate applicable to these operations for textiles, footwear and household appliances. A circular VAT would be a very strong signal sent by the State to repair professionals whose economic model is sometimes fragile and (iii) direct public investment towards projects with high circularity carried out by VSEs / SMEs only, and to extend the tax credit "investments in green industry" to companies investing in the recycling, reuse and reuse of wind turbines, photovoltaic panels, batteries and heat pumps. More to read: ?https://institut-economie-circulaire.fr/communique-de-presse/plf-transition-vers-leconomiecirculaire/

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·The minister of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion has: announced that there will be no mandatory deposit (DRS for plastic recycling) in 2024 and that a review will take place in 2025. And there will be differentiated approaches region by region. with even the possibility of zoning incentive pricing. More to read?: https://blog.landot-avocats.net/2023/09/27/consigne-des-bouteilles-en-plastique-report-dun-an-voire-plus-voire-sine-die-avec-de-possibles-adaptations-regionalisees-a-terme/

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·DRS for plastics will not become mandatory in France, however the municipalities will have to improve their selective collection a recycling rates for plastic packaging. ADEME has presented the levers to achieve it in a study. The purpose of this study is to identify the levers that can be mobilized on home and out-of-home collection and how they can be activated to contribute to the achievement of collection objectives for recycling plastic beverage bottles. This study highlights that the continuation of current actions, ongoing or already decided, does not make it possible to achieve the regulatory objective in 2029 of collection rate for recycling plastic beverage bottles. To consider achieving this objective without the deposit for recycling, it is necessary to strengthen and significantly complement the actions to be implemented. This reinforced deployment of all levers requires significant changes in resources and compliance with all the essential conditions for the implementation of these levers. This trajectory, by pushing the deployment of all levers further, beyond what is currently observed (in France or abroad), has more elements of uncertainty about the improvement of collection performance. The eleven levers identified are: incentive-based fee/pay as you throw, sorting of bio-waste at source, extension of sorting instructions to all packaging, densification of drop-off points for local collection, improvement of the door-to-door collection service, changeover to multi-material collection, diagnosis of household waste and corrective actions, national and local communication campaign on sorting, improvement of sorting performance in sorting centers, development of sorting in public spaces, selective collection in companies, collection systems with rewards. ??More to read (in French only): https://presse.ademe.fr/2023/06/reduction-reemploi-et-recyclage-des-emballages-menagers-lademe-presente-8-nouvelles-etudes.html ? ?

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·A new PRO for industrial and commercial packaging in France, named Twiice recycling. TWIICE has set up an innovative platform: "My Recycled Content". This platform connects manufacturers of industrial and commercial plastic packaging incorporating recycled plastic with organizations seeking sustainable packaging solutions. More to read: . https://www.elipso.org/actualites/twiice-le-jeune-eco-organisme-des-emballages-industriels-et-commerciaux/

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EU & Other countries

?The American Chemistry Council ?believes a national standard for requiring all plastic packaging to include at least 30% recycled plastics within the decade is a much more feasible, market-driven approach to increasing recycling and reducing waste, without resorting to harmful taxes. However, A group of federal?lawmakers last week reintroduced a bill that would establish an excise tax on virgin plastics used to make single-use products such as plastic packaging, beverage containers and food service products. Under the?Rewarding Efforts to Decrease Unrecycled Contaminants in Ecosystems (REDUCE) Act , that tax would start at 10 cents per pound of virgin plastic in 2024, increasing to 15 cents per pound in 2025 and 20 cents in 2026.? More to read: https://www.packagingdive.com/news/reduce-act-tax-virgin-plastic-single-use-packaging/694598/

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?Elipso welcomes the European Parliament's position in favor of the deposit. Elipso welcomes the European Parliament's position in favour of the obligation for States to use a deposit system by 1 January 2029. A necessity to achieve the objectives set. The European Parliament's negotiating teams recently started their work on 7 September on a?compromise proposal on mandatory deposits, extended producer responsibility, collection, and packaging recycling targets. In this proposal, rapporteur Frédérique RIES (Renew) wants to maintain the obligation for Member States to introduce a deposit system by 1 January 2029 for plastic bottles and metal cans. It also proposes to lower the required separate collection rate to 85% (compared to the 90% proposed by the Commission). This pragmatic approach contributes to a smoother transition to a circular economy. In addition, the possibility for states to extend the application of the deposit to other products opens the door to even more ambitious innovations and waste reduction on a national scale. This move towards mandatory deposit is a step in the right direction. More to read:

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·The case for a moratorium on incineration in EU. In 2020 the treatment capacity at waste incinerators classified as ‘D10’ and facilities incinerating municipal waste and co-incinerating waste (R1) was: 183.5 million tons at R1 facilities; 15.3 million tons at D10 facilities. The historic trend in capacity evolution in the EU has been for 8 million tons of capacity to be added annually over the period 2004-2020. On that basis, treatment capacity may now have reached around 220 million tons. ?In comparison with the combined quantity of waste actually treated through R1 and D10 (with 10.5 million tons of hazardous waste and 128.2 million tons of non-hazardous waste) the quantities is about 140 million tons in 2020. Therefore there is a mismatch. More to read: https://zerowasteeurope.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/zwe_sep23_report_enoughisenoughwtemoratorium.pdf

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·Certificates for recyclates? Protecting supply chains: making wiser use of recycled materials. According to this consortium of manufacturers. Shortage of recycled material looms from 2030 on: In order to achieve the quotas proposed by the Commission,?the reuse of Post Consumer Resins (PCR) in PP and PE packaging in Europe to would have to increase more than fivefold. In view of the development to date, this is highly unrealistic. The main obstacles: the lack of separately collected waste and recycling rates in Europe that are too low (19 EU countries fail to meet plastic recycling targets), high quality requirements in the packaging market, such as in particular the lack of approvals for the use of PCR in food and other contact-sensitive packaging. The risk of an inadequate supply of PCR is exacerbated by the fact that other industries will also be subject to legal obligations to use recyclates. The idea is simple. Manufacturers who can use more recycled materials in their products receive credits that they can sell to other manufacturers who cannot yet meet the quota. In this way, we achieve the quota in the overall market, save fossil raw materials and secure supply chains in Europe. More to read: https://newsroom.kunststoffverpackungen.de/en/certificates-for-recyclates/

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Reuse of plastic waste as building materials to enhance sustainability in construction: a review. More to read: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41062-023-01169-8

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In Norway, residents of municipalities pay over one billion kroner in waste fees that businesses should have paid for, according to the municipal interest group. The manufacturer should pay for the plastic packaging when it becomes garbage. But municipalities sit with most of the bill. Now they are asking the EU's oversight body to intervene. More to read: https://lla.no/europas-plastkrise/plasten-du-kaster-er-produsentens-ansvar-men-du-far-regningen/

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The European Commission has just adopted a decision gradually banning the marketing of products containing particles of less than 5 mm composed of at least 1% plastic. This ban will be phased in for a range of products, starting with?synthetic sports fields , which are the main source of microplastics being released into the environment. The ban on microplastics filling the gaps between synthetic strands will come into force in eight years. Initially, the Commission proposed a ban six years after the adoption of its decision. Microplastics in plant protection products (and seeds treated with these products) and biocides will also be banned in eight years. Some products containing microplastics will be banned sooner: rinse-off exfoliants, within four years; detergents, waxes and polishes, as well as fertilisers, within five years; and leave-on cosmetics, medical devices and fragrance encapsulation within six years. On the other hand, it will take twelve years to see the disappearance of microplastics from lip and nail products, as well as makeup. More to read: https://www.actu-environnement.com/ae/news/adoption-decision-commission-europenne-interdiction-progressive-microplastique-42597.php4#xtor=AL-68

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