THE EUROPEAN PLASTICS SYSTEM NEEDS SIGNIFICANT CHANGE WITHIN FIVE YEARS TO MEET LONG-TERM CIRCULARITY AND NET ZERO EMISSIONS GOALS.

ReShaping Plastics – Pathways to a Circular, Climate Neutral Plastics System in Europe finds that a fully circular, net zero carbon emissions plastics system in Europe is possible. However,  achieving it will require radical innovation, ambitious policies and significant capital investment. Cooperation between industry, government and civil society is the critical success factor underlying all of these.

ReShaping Plastics focuses on four of the most important plastic-using sectors: packaging, household goods, automotive, and construction, and presents six scenarios, outlining which actions should be prioritized for different plastic applications in order to meet circularity and climate mitigation goals.

To achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, multiple less mature, innovative technologies and approaches need to be developed and deployed in addition to proven circular economy levers to further decrease GHG emissions and decouple plastic from fossil fuel feedstocks.

Interested in learning more about what ReShaping Plastics means for you?  Read the reports, summaries and factsheets below, and get in touch with [email protected] for more insight into the analytics behind the report, and how European industry can increase the pace of positive change. 

State of play today

24.5

million tonnes of plastic waste generated in 2020

14

of plastic waste was recycled, providing 3.5 Mt of recyclates in 2020

50

of today’s European plastic waste is incinerated for energy recovery

95

million tonnes of CO2e are emitted per year in 2020, one-third is caused by incineration

8 - 15

million tonnes of unaccounted for plastic as a result of gaps in data

Target State 2050

60

(255 Mt) less waste incinerated between 2020-2050

70

less virgin plastic produced from fossil fuels

1.6

Gigatonnes cumulative CO  emissions saved between 2020-2050

160

jobs from circularity levers

1 in 4

in every 4 to be redeployed to innovative low carbon technologies and circular business models

"This rigorous and extensive report should act as a clarion call for all European stakeholders involved in plastics…we must adapt and we must do so at pace"

Jyrki KatainenPresident, SITRA

"With plastic pollution continuing to abound, this report portrays the scale of political, technological and financial leap forward in order to make plastic a sustainable material"

Joan Marc SimonZero Waste Europe

“Around the world, businesses and governments are taking action to build a circular economy for plastics, by eliminating the plastics we don't need, innovating towards new business models and materials, and circulating the plastics we do use. Yet, despite recent progress, we know that much more and faster action is required. This report provides a strong fact base to support such accelerated action in Europe, and I encourage all stakeholders to engage with it."

Rob OpsomerEllen Macarthur Foundation

"Reshaping Plastics has given us a long-awaited science-based quantification on the potential gains of different approaches to reaching net zero. Single solutions will not cut it and neither will continued responsibility-shifting between actors. Read the report, absorb the recommendations and get to work. Everyone."

Prof. Kim RagaertChair of Circular Plastics, Maastricht University

"The plastics industry is working towards higher levels of circularity and reducing the emissions throughout its value chains. The “Reshaping Plastics” report helps all stakeholders to better understand feasibilities and limitations on this path. Foremost, it aims to encourages all stakeholders to closely co-operate and listen to each other in order to advance a truly sustainable plastics economy."

Dr Martin JungPresident, Performance Materials Division, BASF

"There are no 'good' or 'bad' materials: there are just materials in wrong use or badly handled. Plastics are a valuable material, which we are going to need in the future. But we need to design out the waste from plastic goods and create 10-fold resource efficiency in material use to halt the prognosis of the sharply increasing plastic production. We need to create a closed-loop plastic economy. This report is a significant step in this road."

Sirpa PietikäinenEuropean Parliament

“The plastics Industry is committed to the EU’s circularity & emission reduction goals. We strongly believe that plastics have a critical contribution and enabling role to the transition of many downstream industries to net zero. This will require collaboration throughout the value chain and an enabling framework from policymakers to drive a sustainable and competitive Europe. SYSTEMIQ’s report is an important step in our joint understanding and journey.”

Marco Ten BruggencateCommercial VP, Dow Packaging & Specialty Plastics

"This report shows a path for the European plastic industry to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 and puts the application of the circular economy principles in the core of this transition. Adoption of circular strategies for both private sector and civil society are needed to tackle the three most pressing challenges of climate crisis, nature loss and mounting inequality."

Cyrille DurandLead, Plastics & Packaging, WBCSD

"The report is a good read for all people involved in the plastic industry as well as for policymakers and all speaking about CO2 neutrality. The report shows the potential of near, mid and long-term solutions as well as the current 'unknowns' related to the end-life of the plastics that are being used in Europe."

Ton EmansPresident PRE & Director, Group Recycling Cedo

"This report sets a comprehensive picture on how the plastic industry in Europe can meet the carbon neutrality challenge. Its findings makes it clear: we need to start by reducing, reusing, substituting and recycling which are all Circular Economy features."

Stéphane ArditiDirector of Policy Integration and Circular Economy, EEB

"This report on the future of the European plastics system is an important roadmap for an industry that is facing an existential challenge to carve-out a cleaner, more sustainable future, and provides important guidance for the entire value chain on where the biggest impacts need to happen. As a pioneering investor in the technologies that can support this transition, we hope this report serves as an important catalyst to drive further capital towards the solutions required to achieve a circular, net zero plastics industry."

Jamie RowlesHead of Investments, Sky Ocean Ventures

This formidable work addresses a key current issue, plastics in society. The report summarises the scale of the challenge and develops powerful future scenarios to inform concerted action. The key message is ‘Act Now’, because we cannot continue as we have done for roughly the last 80 years, which have seen increasing volumes of commercial plastic used in a linear fashion... I truly hope this work gets the attention it deserves and leads to rapid impact, future-proofing essential uses of plastics but drastically reducing leakage to the environment.

Prof Sabina PahlUrban and Environmental Psychology, University of Vienna

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More to explore

This study is part of the Breaking the Plastic Wave series