Renews support to the EC making the European Green Deal, Europe’s strategic priority.

On Wednesday 16 September, 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 NextGenerationEU 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 incentivise 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.

EuRIC - The European Recycling Industries’ Confederation, of which BMRA is a member, is the umbrella organisation for recycling industries.

Through its Member Federations from 21 EU&EFTA countries, EuRIC represents across Europe over:

  • 5,500+ companies generating an aggregated annual turnover of about 95 billion €, including large companies and SMEs, involved in the recycling and trade of various resource streams;
  •  300,000 local jobs which cannot be outsourced to third EU countries;
  • Million tons of waste recycled per year (metals, paper, glass, plastics, textiles, tyres and beyond);

By turning wastes into resources, recycling is the link which reintroduces recycled materials into the value chains
again and again. Recyclers play a key role in bridging resource efficiency, climate change policy and industrial transition.