A ban on sending plastic waste to landfill must be the ‘last step’ in a long term strategy to reduce the amount of the material that is sent to landfill, plastics recyclers have argued

The comments came in response to calls for a continent-wide ban by Europe’s local authorities, represented by the European Committee of Regions (CoR).

At a meeting of the CoR in Brussels on Tuesday (October 8) the group said that it would support the introduction of a ban on sending all plastic waste to landfill by 2020.

Support for the measure was raised by councillor Linda Gillham, an independent councillor for Runnymede borough council in Surrey, in response the European Commission’s Green Paper on plastic waste published in March – which first mooted the policy (see letsrecycle.com story)