The Federal Environment Agency (UBA) research project is entitled "Investigation of economic instruments for reducing packaging consumption and strengthening plastics recycling and the use of recyclates" and is open for tenders until August 17, 2021. For the UBA, the problems of plastics recycling lie, among other things, in the fact that the price of virgin plastics fluctuates depending on the highly volatile oil price, while the price of recyclates cannot drop equally when the oil price is low, but on the contrary rises with the processing effort. For a functioning circular economy, however, a stable competitiveness of recyclates were very important. The economic instruments sought should be able to achieve this by ensuring a steering effect on both the supply and the demand side. At the same time, such economic incentives should also be able to ensure less raw material consumption for packaging. In the case of measures to reduce packaging consumption, such as levies, the UBA expects a material-independent approach. Specifically for plastics, a possible measure by the German government should be examined on the basis of the EU's plastic levy for non-recyclable plastic packaging waste. So far, the German government has not provided any measure, but pays the amount of 80 cents per kilogram of non-recycled plastic packaging from the tax budget to finance the EU budget. For UBA, it is crucial that the proposed instruments are practicable and can be implemented administratively and legally. They should also function as a mix of instruments. In addition, UBA expects an evaluation of the ecological steering effects and the economic effects.

 

More information: Tendering Procedure Details

 

Sources:

• Euwid Recycling und Entsorgung 27/2021 (6.7.2021)
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