Plastics circular economy strategy not due until end of 2017

The European Commission will take until the end of next year to prepare a strategy to incentivise plastics recycling, vice president Jyrki Katainen told MEPs, as he outlined future work on the circular economy.

The work to address the sector’s high dependence on fossil fuel as feedstock, its low rate of recycling and reuse and the significant leakage of plastic waste into the marine environment, in particular, has just started Katainen told a meeting of the European Parliament’s environment committee on Tuesday.