Consumer Rights Day 2021 – Tackling Plastic Waste

Today, consumer co-operatives join the celebrations of the Consumer Rights Day 2021 and welcome its focus on tackling plastic pollution and consumers’ right to a fair, safe and sustainable marketplace. Consumer co-operatives are deeply committed to increase plastic recycling and tackle the use of unnecessary food packaging. Euro Coop members’ initiatives are varied and their efforts are continuously renewed to meet new ambitious targets, making their operations more resource-efficient and circular.

The past years have been of paramount importance in raising consumers’ and industry’s awareness on the negative impact of plastic waste when released into the environment, and its harmful effect on terrestrial and marine biodiversity and ecosystems. Food safety and human health concerns are equally relevant when discussing plastic food packaging. Recent studies found microplastics in the air, in drinking water and other food products such as salt or honey, but its consequences on our organisms are still mostly unknown.

While in 2018 the EU has introduced a Plastic Strategy and, a year later, a specific piece of legislation to reduce single-use plastic products (SUPs), giving a strong input for the development, marketing and uptake of ecological alternatives, on a global scale there is still a lot to be done to adapt our economic model to the circularity principle. Major changes are therefore required at the policy level to stimulate innovation across the different sectors where plastic materials are used, as well as to ensure actors at every stage of the plastic value chain, from producers to consumers, implement the 3Rs – Reduce, Reuse & Recycle – approach cutting down on the amount of waste. 

Read more about Euro Coop members plastic reduction strategies and on-going successful initiatives here.