Promoting use of recycled plastic
Hundreds of millions of tonnes of plastic are produced each year, exploiting the Earth's resources, whether fossil-based or bio-based. Despite the durability of plastic materials, much of this plastic is made for single-use purposes or otherwise has a short lifespan.
As a result, huge amounts of plastic waste are generated. Most of this waste is disposed of in landfill sites or incinerated, or worse – ends up in nature.
Plastic litter is a massive threat to biodiversity in our oceans, where much of it ultimately ends up. This high consumption of plastic also leads to large emissions of carbon dioxide and therefore contributes to climate change.
How does the Nordic Swan Ecolabel contribute?
Nordic Ecolabelling promotes recycling of plastic by setting requirements for replacing virgin plastics with recycled content in different ways. By doing so, the negative environmental aspects of plastic materials in the production and waste stage can be reduced. The requirements for obtaining the Nordic Swan Ecolabel are adapted to specific product groups and can include:
- A minimum share of recycled plastic in the product or packaging.
- Limiting harmful chemical substances in recycled plastic, documented either by testing or supply chain traceability.
- Promoting post-consumer recycled plastic over pre-consumer recycled plastic if possible, for a specific product area.
- Promoting design for recycling of products and packaging, if possible.
Environmental background
To promote a circular economy and to avoid many of the negative environmental impacts associated with the production of virgin plastic, increased use of recycled material is necessary. However, challenges related to safety, future applications, availability, and the decrease in functional properties need to be addressed. Some types of recycled plastic may have limited areas of use due to variations in quality or properties. For instance, post-consumer recycled plastic is currently generally suitable for fewer types of products compared to pre-consumer recycled plastic. It is therefore important that post-consumer recycled plastic is used where possible.
The diverse functional and safety requirements of plastics often necessitate the use of different types of additives, but some additives have unwanted environmental and health effects. Unfortunately, recycled material often has low traceability with regard to additives. This is particularly the case for post-consumer plastics, where the sources of the material may not be entirely known.
Depending on the product type and how the user is exposed to the product, there is a need for traceability regarding previously used additives in the plastic. Otherwise, recycled material must be tested to ensure that it does not contain harmful substances or that it originates from a documented closed-loop system where the source is known. It is also important to reduce the risk of accumulation of harmful substances through further recycling and reuse of the material.