Eastman joined more than 30 organizations from across Europe's plastics and packaging value chain through the European Plastics Circularity (EPC) Coalition, an industry-led initiative advocating for policies that strengthen plastics circularity and investment in Europe.
This informal and issue-driven coalition is calling for the mandatory recycled-content targets under Article 7 of the PPWR to be met with waste collected, sorted and recycled in EU, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and the UK — or in third countries that demonstrate genuine equivalence across their entire recycling system.
If Europe requires more recycled plastic in packaging, we must also make sure the material that counts toward those targets is produced under fair, traceable and genuinely equivalent conditions.
Recycled content targets should help build a stronger European circular economy through:
- clear rules for which recycled content can count,
- assessing equivalence at the recycling system level, not only factory by factory, and
- making the rules enforceable through robust audits and penalties.
These measures can help create a level playing field for companies investing in circular solutions, strengthen confidence in recycled-content claims, and provide the certainty needed to expand collection, sorting and recycling infrastructure across Europe.
By aligning recycled-content requirements with high standards and effective enforcement, Europe has an opportunity to turn waste into a valuable domestic resource while accelerating progress toward a circular economy.
For additional information, please contact Francisca Melia, Eastman’s senior government affairs leader for EMEA and EPC Coalition chair, at fmeliaaltava@eastman.com.
