The Federal Ministry for the Environment has published its departmental research plan for 2023, Euwid reports.

 

According to the Federal Environment Ministry, the departmental research plan is aligned with the ministry's priorities and objectives. It is intended to address medium-term research needs and specify individual research projects, including for the first time those on "circular economy" as one of five strategic core topics. The federal institutions with research and development tasks, such as the Federal Environment Agency, will also draw up their own research programs and publish them on their websites, the ministry announces. Plastic recycling is reportedly the subject of one of the research projects starting in 2023 from the core topic "Circular economy and sustainability requirements for chemicals and their use." This research project aims to determine the state of affairs regarding hazardous substances in products made from "bulk plastics" and, based on this, derive requirements for recyclates. In another project on innovations with sustainable chemistry, a feasibility study for a start-up fund is planned, which shall also include conditions for implementation in practice and scaling. Among the other research areas are also those related to waste management and circular economy, such as a call for proposals for the cost evaluation of different models of WEEE collection to increase quantity and quality. Two other planned research projects are related to the Mantelverordnung, which comes into force in August 2023 and centers on the introduction of a substitute building materials ordinance and the revision of the Federal Soil Protection and Contaminated Sites Ordinance. The related research projects concern scientific monitoring for the evaluation and further development of the regulations of the Substitute Building Materials Ordinance and for the evaluation of the value regulations of the Federal Soil Protection Ordinance.
 

Further informationen: to download the departmental research plan (in German)
 

Sources:

• Euwid Recycling und Entsorgung 50/2022 (Dec. 13, 2022)
• bmuv.de
• Photo: unsplash.com, Drew Hays (symbol image)