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News article28 May 2018

JRC provides scientific policy support for new Commission proposal on single-use plastics

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© Adobe Stock, by Richard Carey

The JRC provided DG Environment with information on the most common marine litter items found on European beaches to help draft today's new European Commission's proposal for a Directive on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment.

This new proposal, which is part of the EU's comprehensive Plastics Strategy, puts forward a set of rules to tackle the 10 most found plastic waste items on Europe’s beaches as well as fishing gear.

Based on its longstanding support to the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD 2008/56/EC) through the MSFD Technical Group on Marine Litter, EU Member States and other stakeholders, the JRC developed a harmonised EU data set of the most common marine beach litter items in Europe in 2016 (Top Marine Beach Litter Items in Europe, in press*).

This data provided DG Environment with basic information on the leaking of plastics into the environment. It was published in the EU Plastics Strategy (the world’s first comprehensive Plastics Strategy, adopted in January 2018), and the results of the data analysis were used to prepare today's legislative proposal on single-use plastics and fishing gear.

Further information

* Addamo A.M., Laroche P., Hanke G., Top Marine Beach Litter Items in Europe, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2018, ISBN 978-92-79-85951-9, doi:10.2760/824806, JRC108181

Details

Publication date
28 May 2018