EU ready with plastic strategy

A new plastic strategy from the EU will lead to less plastic waste and more recycling. Danish Minister of Environment and Food Esben Lunde Larsen welcomes the strategy and is going to follow up with a Danish action plan on plastic.

The European Commission presented their long waited strategy on plastic today the 16th of January in Bruxelles. Danish Minister of Environment and Food Esben Lunde Larsen says that the strategy seems promising.

- The strategy puts focus to many of the challenges that I am concerned about. I am happy that the EU has strong visionary plans for the future of plastic – for example that we in 2030 is supposed to reutilize at least 50 per cent of all plastic waste and secure that all plastic wrapping in 2030 can be recycled or reused easily.

- All in all we waste too much plastic and we need to be better at reusing the plastic we have. There is already a functional market for recyclable plastic. This is an area where there is an enormous potential and which is best solvable on an EU-scale.

- This is an agenda where the consumer has the opportunity to play an active role. It is important that the consumer can make informed choices about the usage of plastic in everyday life, so material doesn’t necessarily end as waste, says Esben Lunde Larsen.

Follow up with national plan

Esben Lunde Larsen mentions that the Danish government will launch a national action plan to follow up on the EU strategy:

- The EU and Denmark simply needs to be better to protect the nature and the environment against plastic waste. The strategy from EU needs to be followed up with national initiatives. I will therefore on behalf of the Danish government start working on a national action plan on plastic. I am happy that there is broad support in the Danish parliament to start such a work, says the Minister.

Read the report here.

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Press secretary Ming Ou Lü, email: Obfuscated Email, telephone: +45 20 77 04 59.