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Key actions to reduce waste and increase value: Enhancing circularity in a toxic-free environment?

EU chemicals policy and legislation, in particular REACH, encourage a shift to ‘safe-by-design chemicals’ through the progressive substitution of hazardous substances to better protect citizens and the environment. However, the safety of secondary raw materials can still be compromised, for instance, where banned substances persist in recycled feedstock. To increase the confidence in using secondary raw materials, the Commission will:

  • support the development of solutions for high-quality sorting and removing contaminants from waste, including those resulting from incidental contamination;
  • develop methodologies to minimise the presence of substances that pose problems to heatlh or the environment  in recycled materials and articles made thereof;
  • co-operate with industry to progressively develop harmonised systems to track and manage information on substances identified as being of very high concern and other relevant substances, in particular those with chronic effects, and substances posing technical problems for recovery operations present along supply chains, and identify those substances in waste, in synergy with measures under the sustainable products policy framework and with the ECHA Database on articles containing substances of very high concern;
  • propose amending the annexes to the Regulation on Persistent Organic Pollutants, in line with scientific and technical progress and the international obligations under the Stockholm Convention; 
  • improve the classification and management of hazardous waste so as to maintain clean recycling streams, including through further alignment with the classification of chemical substances and mixtures where necessary.

The forthcoming Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability will further address the interface between chemicals, products and waste legislation and strengthen synergies with the circular economy.

 

Source: European Commission

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