Declaration of the Circular Plastics Alliance
The vision of the Circular Plastics Alliance is to deliver on the circular economy for plastics
and substantially increase the use of recycled plastics into new products.
The Circular Plastics Alliance endorses the ambitious target that by 2025 at least 10 million
tonnes of recycled plastics should find their way into products and packaging in Europe each
year (hereafter referred to as "the 10 million tonnes target"), helping to deliver the circular
economy with a life cycle approach.
We, private and public stakeholders involved in the plastics value chains, have joined
together in the Circular Plastics Alliance, supported by the European Commission in the
context of the European Plastics Strategy, to promote the use of more recycled plastics in
Europe through voluntary action.
Plastics and plastic waste are valuable resources for the circular economy. Increasing
collection of plastic waste for recycling contributes to reducing plastic pollution.
We intend to work together along the plastics value chains, including all relevant public and
private actors across Europe, to reach this objective whilst ensuring the functionalities of
plastic products and packaging, not compromising on consumer protection, safety and
hygiene.
We will join our forces to realise the full potential of recycled plastics in the circular economy
and help the European market for recycled plastics grow steadily in the future, with policies
and measures that facilitate the free movement of plastic waste for recycling and recycled
plastics in the EU.
We the signatories commit to work together, each within our own competencies, statutory
mandates (where applicable) and responsibilities, to deliver the content of this Declaration.
All signatories and persons involved in the activities of the Circular Plastics Alliance shall fully
respect all applicable laws and regulations, in particular EU and national competition rules.
The Circular Plastics Alliance will adopt a competition compliance programme and abide by
it.
Design for recycling
We commit to develop, update or revise design for recycling guidelines for all plastic
products and ensure they are revised on a regular basis to take into account innovation.
These guidelines should consider products' or packaging's functionalities, while taking into
account impacts over the life cycle. We aim at improving the recyclability of plastic products
in order to deliver the volumes and quality of recycled plastics necessary to meet the end
market needs.
We commit to actively contribute to the update of CEN and industry standards on
recyclability and related ones.
We commit to agree by 1/3/2020 on a work plan for the delivery of the necessary guidelines
and standards.
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We call for harmonised definitions of recyclability per product group to safeguard the Single
Market.
We commit to deliver by 1/1/2021 an overview of the current status of the production of
recycled plastics in the EU, identify untapped potential for more recycling and map the
necessary investments in recycling facilities in each Member State to reach the 10 million
tonnes target. We call for the support of the public authorities in Europe in this work.
Collection and sorting
We declare that there should be a shift to zero plastic waste to nature and zero landfilling of
plastic waste and all plastic waste should be properly disposed of and collected.
We call on all public authorities across the EU to eliminate the landfilling of plastic waste in
their territory.
We call for initiatives in the EU to inform and raise awareness of consumers and businesses
on zero littering and proper management of plastic waste and commit to participate.
We commit to work with all relevant public and private actors across Europe to create an
effective framework for the separate collection of all plastic waste with the aim to optimise the
sorting for quality recycling.
We commit to deliver by 1/6/2020 a state-of-play on collected and sorted plastic waste in the
EU, identify untapped potential for more collection and sorting for recycling and by 1/1/2021,
map the necessary investments in collection and sorting facilities and infrastructures in each
Member State to reach the 10 million tonnes target. We call on all public authorities in the EU
to contribute to this analysis and make or foster the necessary investments.
We commit to develop standardised methods to assess the quality of sorted plastic waste.
Recycled content
We commit to increase the uptake of recycled plastics up to at least 10 million tonnes, in all
plastic products, whilst ensuring product quality and safety.
We commit to work with all relevant public and private actors across Europe to create
effective conditions for the increased uptake of recycled plastics. We will identify the legal,
economic and technical requirements ensuring more uptake of recycled plastics and report
on these with solutions by 1/1/2021.
We call for new voluntary pledges to use more recycled plastics.
We commit to actively support the development or revision of European standards and
guidelines on the quality of plastics recycling and recycled plastics, where necessary, and
promote their use in the value chains.
We commit to communicate and promote the positive value of recycled plastics in a circular
economy.
R&D and investments, including chemical recycling
We commit to define the R&D and investment needs, including the scale up of chemical
recycling, in order to deliver the 10 million tonnes target.
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We commit to build by 1/3/2020 a research and development agenda on circular plastics, to
address the technological barriers to meet the market and regulatory needs.
We commit to map by 1/1/2021 the investments and funding needed in collection, sorting,
recycling and converting of plastics, and list the technological, economic and regulatory
challenges to make these investments.
We call for the plastics value chains and public authorities to further invest along the lines of
the R&D agenda and the mapping of investments mentioned above.
Monitoring
We commit to set up by 1/1/2021 a harmonised EU value chain voluntary system to monitor
volumes1 of recycled plastics used in European products2. The system will be transparent,
trusted and ensure traceability of the data.
The objective is to aggregate and/or generate data from these three stages:
• collected & sorted plastics waste;
• the recyclers' inputs, the inputs to the recycling operations and the recyclers' outputs
(including imports and exports); and
• the converters’ inputs and outputs of the use in market segments of recycled plastics
(including imports and exports).
We commit to have the system and data audited.
We call on all stakeholders to actively support the set-up and use of the system. We call on
all public authorities across the EU, as well as Extended Producer Responsibility schemes,
to collect and share the necessary data.
Governance
We will pursue action until 2025 to deliver our commitments, with the support of the
European Commission.
We will create a Steering Committee to coordinate our activities, establish roles and
responsibilities and produce annual reports, which will describe the progress made towards
the 10 million tonnes target. The Steering Committee, which shall be representative of the
signatories, will establish working groups, monitor the delivery of the commitments and may
propose corrective action.
We will communicate our objectives and actions to the public and to all stakeholders
By signing this Declaration, the signatories mandate the Steering Committee to deliver its
tasks.
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Preferably by mass balance, by polymer/country/market segment /legal compliances
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On an aggregate tonnage basis in order to track the 10 million tonnes target
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