The Plastics Roadmap for Finland, prepared by a cooperation group appointed for this purpose, has been submitted to Minister Tiilikainen. The roadmap is the first step towards a new, sustainable plastic economy. Of the more than 100 proposals made, the roadmap presents a set of key actions to find solutions to challenges caused by plastics.
In particular, it contains new practices for separate collection and to make things easier for consumers. Indeed, to improve the recovery of plastics the requirements concerning separate collection must be revised and the recovery and collection sites must be significantly increased, including by expanding the property-specific and regional collection systems and organising collection for blocks of detached or semidetached houses. Experiments are needed to study the options for separate collection, and more consumer advice is also needed. The Plastics Roadmap presents specific actions for two sectors. The identification of plastics in buildings and sorting of plastic wastes at construction sites should be improved.
However, better recovery of plastics alone is not enough, but the further processing and use of the plastic waste that has been collected must also be improved. The working group stresses the need for more and increasingly diverse recycling solutions for different value chains, including an assessment of the suitability and impacts of chemical recycling. The cooperation group estimates that one or two new full-scale processing plants for plastics and a unit or units for chemical recycling are needed.
More information on the Ministry of the Environment’s website.