The Commission starts to develop end-of-waste criteria for plastic waste

The Commission has finalised its scoping assessment to identify the priority list of waste streams for the development of further EU-wide end-of-waste criteria, as announced in the Circular Economy Action plan.*

Over the past year and a half, the Commission has carried out a scoping exercise that included a study published in 2020.** This was followed up by a stakeholder consultation and an on-line stakeholder workshop on 14-15 September 2021 where the Commission presented the ongoing end-of-waste scoping project, information gathered and preliminary findings.***

As part of this work, the Joint Research Centre/European Commission published the report Scoping possible further EU-wide end-of-waste and by-product criteria (europa.eu). This report identifies the most suitable candidate streams for which further EU-wide end-of-waste criteria could be developed based on a methodology developed to ensure a real added EU value. The assessment builds on data and information provided by stakeholders during the stakeholder consultation period.

The top two candidate streams to be prioritised are the following:

1.  Plastics:

• polyethylene terephthalate recovered/recycled from plastic waste;
• low- and high-density polyethylene recovered/recycled from plastic waste;
• mixed plastics waste recovered/recycled from plastic waste;
• polystyrene and expanded polystyrene recovered/recycled from plastic waste; and
• polypropylene plastic recovered/recycled from plastic waste.

2. Textiles:

• separately collected clothes and other textiles prepared for re-use;
• cellulosic fibres recovered/recycled from textile waste; and
• mixed fibres recovered/recycled from textile waste

The Commission and its Joint Research Centre will commence the work on the development of end-of-waste criteria for plastic waste in Q2 2022 with the finalisation of the technical assessment expected by Q1 2024.  

The work on end-of-waste criteria for textile waste will commence in 2023.

*  See further COM/2020/98 final, Section 4.3, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=1583933814386&uri=COM:2020:98:FIN and Annex, https://ec.europa.eu/environment/circular-economy/pdf/new_circular_economy_action_plan_annex.pdf.

** A study published in 2020, a  by Umweltbundesamt GmbH and ARCADIS Belgium NV, STUDY TO ASSESS MEMBER STATES (MS) PRACTICES ON BY-PRODUCT AND END-OF WASTE,  Reference: N° 070201/2018/793241/ENV.B.3 Final Report, 30/04/2020, https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/beb56eaa-9fc0-11ea-9d2d-01aa75ed71a1/language-en/format-PDF/source-130854906 . The study examined Member States’ practices, set out recommendations and provided an overview of the situation in Member States as regards EoW and by-product criteria.

***A specific written consultation followed after the workshop on which basis Member States and stakeholders provided input and detailed comments to the Commission during autumn 2021.