The most hazardous plastics, such as microplastics and those containing metal, and certain plastic bags should be banned by 2020, Members of European Parliament (MEPs) have said.

In a vote on a European Commission (EC) green paper on Tuesday (24 January), MEPs passed a resolution calling on the commission to ban certain plastics as part of an EU strategy to reduce plastic waste in the environment.

According to the adopted text, plastic materials are becoming increasingly diverse (and toxic) and can accumulate in ‘large quantities’ (a total of 80 million tonnes is estimated to be floating in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans) and persist in the environment for hundreds of years, ‘killing marine life, provoking toxic reactions and releasing endocrine disrupters, substances that are carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic for reproduction, nanoparticles, and persistent organic pollutants into the ecosystems and hence the food chain’.

It continues that ‘poor implementation and enforcement of EU waste legislation’ by member states has also resulted in a ‘lack of relevant targets and price mechanisms, insufficient internal demand for recycled materials, illegal dumping, illegal exports and improper storage, and processing and transport of plastic waste’, which in turn have led to ‘significant global damage to human health and the environment, including marine life, and to increased exports of waste, resulting in loss of materials and employment in the EU’.

‘Plastic should only be sent for energy recovery as a last resort’

As such, the resolution, which was passed by a show of hands, called on the EC to:

• Introduce a ‘progressive and ambitious target for recycled plastic free from hazardous additives’ by 2020;
• Phase out single-use plastic bags ‘wherever possible’;
• Phase out the landfilling of recyclable and recoverable waste (including plastic) by 2020;
• Discourage the incineration of recyclable materials;
• Restrict plastic waste being sent for energy recovery ‘unless all other possibilities have been exhausted’ and only if the technology used includes the ‘requisite purification systems for preventing environmental damage and harm to human health’;
• Prioritise the financing of waste recycling infrastructure over the financing of waste dumping and incineration;
• Introduce specific binding targets for collecting and sorting up to 80 per cent of waste;
• Introduce mandatory criteria for recycling;
• Harmonise criteria for collecting and sorting waste to ‘ensure fair competition’; and
• Review the current EU directive on packaging waste (as 40 per cent of plastic waste derives from packaging and ‘mostly from single-use products’).

According to the green paper, boosting the amount of plastic that is recycled could also benefit the economy as well as the environment, as currently, only a quarter of plastics used are recycled.

Further, MEPs citied that ‘fully enforcing EU legislation on waste’ could save €72 billion (£60 billion) a year, boost the annual turnover of EU waste management and recycling firms by €42 billion (£35 billion) and create over 400,000 jobs by 2020.

Speaking after the text was adopted, rapporteur Vittorio Prodi said: “Parliament has shown the way to deal with the huge problem of the detrimental impact of plastic waste on the environment and human health. We said today that we want to change bad habits and account for our products, from production through to final disposal. By putting these products to good use and recycling them as much as possible, we close the loop and give effect to the concept of a 'circular' economy. This will also help to clean up our seas and land, while creating more job opportunities.”

The vote follows on from calls to reclassify certain types of plastic waste – including polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polystyrene, polyurethane and polycarbonate – as hazardous to mitigate associated health risks and protect wildlife.

Read the adopted text on ‘European strategy on plastic waste in the environment’ or find out more about the effect of hazardous plastic on the environment.