Abstract
Bearing in mind that only 42% of plastic packaging post-consumer waste is recycled in Europe, the European Directive 2018/852 established the key target of a 55% plastic packaging waste recycling rate by 2030. For this reason, PlastiCircle, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program project, aims to foster the recycling of packaging, improve all stages of the waste collection, and promote responsible consumption. Three European cities have been selected as locations for pilot implementation: Valencia (Spain), Utrecht (The Netherlands) and Alba Iulia (Romania). The main objective of the present study has been to evaluate the participants’ opinion and attitudes on plastic recycling. This paper presents the results from the district of San Marcelino in the city of Valencia, the first PlastiCircle pilot to face the challenges of encouraging households to participate more in plastic waste sorting and recycling.
Highlights
Plastic production has increased over the last century, currently reaching a production of 61.8 million tonnes in Europe, becoming the preferred material of the industry
The production of oil products, which are flexible and relatively cheap, generate massive production that ends up flooding the planet with plastic (PlasticsEurope, 2019)
42% of packaging waste is recycled in Europe (PlasticsEurope, 2019)
Summary
Plastic production has increased over the last century, currently reaching a production of 61.8 million tonnes in Europe, becoming the preferred material of the industry. The production of oil products, which are flexible and relatively cheap, generate massive production that ends up flooding the planet with plastic (PlasticsEurope, 2019). More than 29.1 million tonnes of plastic post-consumer waste were collected in Europe, with only 32.5% being recycled, whereas 42.6% was incinerated and 24.9% landfilled (Eurostat, 2018). Packaging is the main plastic waste fraction, with 15.8 million tonnes generated in the European Union per year (Eurostat, 2018). 42% of packaging waste is recycled in Europe (PlasticsEurope, 2019) This situation is still far from the objective of 55% by 2030 established in the European Plastic Strategy and the European Directive 2018/852 (EUR-Lex, 2018)
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