Movs. World: 'MEPs and organizations want to kill plastic garbage dragon in the EU'

To mark the disclosure of this manifesto against the trade in plastic waste, the associations promoting the initiative – the Break Free From Plastic movement, the Rethink Plastic alliance, the Rethink Plastic alliance, the EU Environmental Research Agency, the European Environment Office and the Zero Waste Europe network — today exhibiting a three-metre dragon made of plastic waste in front of the Council and the European Commission in the European Quarter , in Brussels.

And, so far, “36 MEPs and 61 organizations around the world agree that now is the time to kill him”, to the dragon that represents the garbage resulting from the sale of plastic waste, said these promoters in a statement.

At issue is a manifesto published today in which “MEPs and supporting organizations agree that the EU must address and resolve this issue by imposing a ban on exports of plastic waste outside its borders and ensuring that intra-EU waste management plastics is fully in line with a true circular economy and current international agreements,” they argue.

Among the signatories are the Portuguese MEPs Isabel Carvalhais (PS) and Francisco Guerreiro (independent), as well as Quercus, a Portuguese non-governmental organization for the environment.

The manifesto reads that “the trade in plastic waste creates immeasurable damage to society, health and the environment that is disproportionately felt around the world and this has been happening for decades.”

“We cannot aim to achieve a truly secure circular economy with ambitious reductions in resource use, while continuing to unload the burden of our plastic waste elsewhere”, says the document, which calls “the institutions of the European Union to legislate, through the Waste Shipment Regulation, a ban on exports of plastic waste from the Union and an intra-EU management of European plastic waste that is in line with a true circular economy”.

According to data released by the promoting organizations, in 2019, the EU transferred more than 1.7 million tons of plastic to third countries in the form of waste, mostly to Turkey, Malaysia and China.

Already information from the EU Environmental Research Agency reveals that, in the last 30 years, billions of tons of plastic waste have been legally traded around the world, with the EU being one of the largest exporters, namely six of its Member States (Germany , Netherlands, France, Belgium, Italy and Slovenia).

On the eve of the European Commission presenting a new proposal for the EU Regulation on shipments of waste, it calls for restrictions on shipments outside the Union, measures to address adverse environmental and health effects and a more effective inspection system.

The manifesto will be delivered this afternoon to the European Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, Virginijus Sinkevicius.

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