FEAD members welcome the non-legislative Public Procurement Package (1) “Increasing the impact of public investment through efficient and professional procurement” and support the Commission’s continued efforts to ensure that the public procurement rules are properly implemented across the internal market. FEAD believes that public procurement, and in particular GPP – green public procurement, is one of the tools that can contribute to the transition from a linear to a circular economy.

 

“Over recent years, falling oil prices have lowered the price for virgin plastics, creating a price gap with recycled materials leading to the closure of plants and job losses in what should actually be a promising market. Furthermore, the recently announced ban by China on imports as from January 2018 on different waste streams has already dramatically affected recycled materials prices and offtakes. This wake-up call not only urgently requires the creation of more treatment capacity in Europe but also of additional local demand through demand-side measures.”

 

Therefore we need to promote the use of recycled materials to make them competitive with virgin ones and by stimulating the demand for secondary materials across the entire value chain. As a way of reaching this goal, GPP must be intensified and the use of recycled content must become mandatory in various public tenders, at EU, Member State, and local authority levels.

 

“FEAD does not believe that reliance on voluntary measures alone is enough to stimulate the secondary plastics market. Therefore, we call on the Commission to come up with mandatory EU-wide GPP criteria for plastic products to reach a good balance between environmental performance, cost considerations, market availability and ease of verification. European resource and waste management industry would be happy to see such mandatory measures being proposed in the upcoming Plastics Strategy.”

 

For further information please contact:

Nadine De Greef – FEAD Secretary General: info@fead.be

 

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“FEAD is the European federation representing the private waste and resource management industry across Europe. FEAD’s members are national waste management associations covering 19 Member States, Norway and Serbia. Our companies play a key role in the transition to a circular economy by producing resources which can be re-injected in the economy and by supplying energy. They add value through innovative and cost-efficient collection, sorting, and recycling of secondary raw materials. In doing so, they play a key role in achieving the best economic and environmental outcomes.

FEAD members represent about 3,000 companies with activities in all forms of waste management. These companies employ over 320,000 people who operate around 2,400 recycling and sorting centres, 1,100 composting sites, 260 waste-to-energy plants and 900 controlled landfills. Our companies have an approximate 60% share in the household waste market and handle more than 75% of industrial and commercial waste in Europe. Their combined annual turnover is approximately € 75 billion.”

 

(1) “Increasing the impact of public investment through efficient and professional procurement”, published by the EC on 3 October 2017