Öko-Institut e.V.: Living without plastics

Editorial

[Translate to Englisch:] Jan Peter Schemmel, Sprecher der Geschäftsführung des Öko-Instituts

For a new culture of sorting

Editorial by Jan Peter Schemmel, CEO, Oeko-Institut

I pulled almost 30,000 tetrapacks out of the stream of waste – in a single shift. That was in the mid-1990s, when I spent a couple of days in a sorting plant where I sorted waste by hand. They were probably some of the most instructive days I have ever spent at work, providing insights into our throwaway culture, our sorting habits and the vast quantities of plastic packaging that we get through.

Plastics should not be condemned out of hand, because it is indisputable that they have many…

For a new culture of sorting

In Focus

A world full of plastics

Consuming less plastics – how does that work?

Worldwide, more than 400 million tonnes of plastics are produced each year. Plastics are ubiquitous in our everyday lives – in the packaging of food and cosmetic products, in mixing bowls and cleaning buckets, in cars and bicycles, in clothing and furniture. This omnipresent material – “plastics” is actually an umbrella term for a variety of manmade polymers – is a relatively new arrival on the scene. Not until the second half of the 20th century did it become widely used in…

A world full of plastics

A wasted resource

Recycling plastics better

A large proportion of plastics waste in Europe is not recycled but instead incinerated for energy generation. Thirty-nine percent of plastics waste is recovered in this way. Another 31 percent goes to landfill, and just 30 percent is recycled. Even in Germany, where the recycling rate for plastics waste is significantly higher at 46 percent, 53 percent is incinerated for energy recovery. Packaging represents the largest proportion of plastics waste in Germany, accounting for 30.5…

A wasted resource

[Translate to Englisch:] Piotr Barczak (EEB)

“The European Commission’s Action Plan is pursuing a promising strategy”

Interview with Piotr Barczak (EEB)

The EU has taken various steps to restrict plastics consumption in Europe and boost recycling rates. Piotr Barczak, Senior Policy Officer for Waste at the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), a network of European environmental organisations, is an expert in reducing plastics consumption. In this interview he talks about the opportunities opened up by the EU’s Single-Use Plastics Directive, which – among other things – introduces minimum quotas for the use of recycled plastic and…

“The European Commission’s Action Plan is pursuing a promising strategy”