Briefing

The role of plastics in Europe’s circular economy

Briefing Published 18 Jun 2024 Last modified 16 Jul 2024

16 min read

Photo: © Cesare Barillà, ZeroWaste PIX / EEA

Plastics are essential in society. Yet value chains are unsustainable — generating emissions and increasing waste and pollution. Reducing such impacts demands moving towards a circular and sustainable plastics system. This briefing covers plastics production and consumption in Europe, the impacts on the environment and climate change, and how we can shift to a circular economy for plastics. Work from the Circularity Metrics Lab on plastics (EEA, 2024a) and a report on the Circularity Metrics Lab for Plastics from the European Topic Centre on Circular Economy and Resource Use inform this briefing.

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Disclaimer

The country assessments are the sole responsibility of the EEA member and cooperating countries supported by the EEA through guidance, translation and editing.

For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/the-role-of-plastics-in-europe/the-role-of-plastics-in or scan the QR code.

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