Our goal is a successful circular economy for plastics and chemicals. Europe needs to expand its recycling infrastructure and markets rapidly and create competitive conditions that enable companies to compete globally and Member States to meet their targets. Cefic welcomes the European Commission’s Call for Evidence on recycled-content calculation and verification under Article 7(8) of the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) as an opportunity to provide clarity and enable timely decisive action.
The methodology established under the PPWR Implementing Act will directly influence the economic viability of chemical recycling pathways, investment decisions across the European chemical industry, the industry’s ability to contribute to mandatory recycled-content targets, and consistency across European circular-economy legislation. Its impact will be global: equivalent calculation, traceability and verification requirements should apply to imported materials when qualifying as recycled materials counted towards EU targets.
Cefic members ask for rapid regulatory certainty for chemical recycling; the fuel-use-exclusion principle; robust traceability, independent verification and credible claims on final products containing recycled content; recognition of solid outputs as potential dual-use outputs where their non-fuel use is demonstrated; and credit transfers between sites under clearly defined and auditable conditions.
The basis of this approach is a verifiable, implementable, economically viable and credible mass balance for recycled content calculations.